Labor of Love

 I knew I wanted to purchase a longboard for Jake's Christmas present, ever since he mentioned that it'd be nice to have one to get around campus. But I knew absolutely nothing about longboards and an Amazon search yielded so many options! All different woods, shapes, lengths... and then there was a whole new lingo to learn: the tail, wheels, trucks... It was overwhelming, but my only other option was too lame to pursue (Target giftcard, anyone?).

I was willing to invest in it, since I'd set a solid Christmas budget this year. So I called Jake's best friend Alex for some help and he sent me a ton of links and recommendations. At the top of his list was a blank board, "You could totally personalize it with wood-burning or paint if you wanted, which would be sick!" Sold!

The next hurdle though was what to paint? I had to think in terms of the right picture as well as feasibility. (Fun fact: I considered a similar endeavor for Mr. Jake back in 2008 or 2009 involving a dragon painting on the underside of a skateboard. But my ideas back then weren't fully developed and I wouldn't even know how to paint a legitimate dragon.) I thought and thought, what image sums up Jake's personality? Calvin and Hobbes!

Finding this picture on the internet solidified my decision:

It was so perfect! So I bought some brushes and acrylic paint at Michaels (my first time using this medium) and set to work. First I sketched out the drawing on newsprint in pencil and then sharpie.

Then I traced the back of the sharpie in pencil and transferred it to the board.

Then it was painting time! The sketching and transferring took me about an hour and a half and then I painted the board in three sessions, each an episode of Sherlock (mostly reruns). I wasn't really happy with the first layers of green because the medium was quite foreign to me and it wasn't turning out like my picture. So I didn't take a picture of it. But as I got into the second layer, it really started to take shape.

Once I added in a few more layers of color, it really started to shine! The black was truly the finishing touch on the piece and it made a HUGE difference!

I had my doubts in the beginning, but at the end of the day, I really couldn't have been happier with the outcome!

Merry Christmas Jake!

Being a Backsliding Daughter with a Renegade Boyfriend

My parents gave completely different reactions to my announcement that I would be skipping church to go hiking with Jake on Mt. Lemmon this last Sunday. My mom laughed and said, "I would skip church too if I could!" My dad also laughed, but he said, "When I'm giving announcements, I'll make sure to ask for prayer for my backsliding daughter and her renegade boyfriend!" Funny, Dad.

After rescheduling this adventure twice already, we decided that Sunday morning was the best time for it and although sacrilegious, we ditched church to enjoy warm drinks and breakfast at LeBuzz (my favorite French-style café!!) and drive up the the hill for some mountain fresh air!

The morning was filled with marveling at the Lord's creation (especially the turning leaves!), huffing and puffing uphill, and pleasant conversation mingled with the songs of the birds, the chatter of the creek, and the whisper and rustle of wind among the leaves--the epitome of contentment.

In Black and White

Jake needed some new headshots for a theater company he auditioned for this weekend and guess who he entrusted to do it! Me! And it was my first time practicing black and white photography!

Here are some of my favorites from the impromptu photo shoot on our back porch: 

Happy Again

Stats:

pictures with Jake: 23+ (I think there's more, but I can't find them)
trips to Starbucks: 3
trips to RR: 3
happiness: extra high
sleep cycle: still normal
feeling: generous and happy
reading: Radical by David Platt 
learning: how to bake Baklava!, I need to rethink my definition of "greatness"
highlights: Jake coming home, hearing all about France, visiting Kristina while she was sick, free-writing, baklava

Weekly Update:

Well! It's Friday and yes it is very hot in Tucson (consistently over 100 degrees) the sun is shining and it's summer and Jake is home again, and once more life is starting to feel sunny and bright. Of course, it is wonderful to have him back again. We spent the first night just being together and trying to catch up,but knowing at the same time that it would take us a while to fully catch up. A lot of life happens in two weeks. Of course I feel like there are still many things which I still haven't told him and vice versa, but I trust they will come in due time.

This week, I've been working hard and playing harder and of course spending quite a lot of time with my love. I'm still making time for my other friends though. Yesterday, there was baklava and today, a few of my girl friends are coming over to play cards and hang out. Earlier this morning, I went grocery shopping to pick up some sandwich stuff and I couldn't help a little spring in my step as I waltzed into my favorite bakery--the Boulangerie for some rolls and then popped over to Sunflower for some fruit and cucumbers. I don't know what it was, but I felt like showering everyone I encountered with smiles today. Must be summer.

Emotionally Compromised

A couple months ago, Mom, Cameron and I were all sitting on the couch, absorbed in our own little worlds when I announced, "I'm foreshadowing!!" with a devious little laugh. My mom asks me what exactly is being foreshadowed.

In a fit of giggles, I explain. I'd sent Jake a letter earlier that week, and I wasn't going to tell him about it so it was a surprise in his mailbox. Like, "Oh look! Misha sent me a letter!" But he was having a bad day and he told me, "I could probably use some of those cookies you made." So I replied, "Well, I can't teleport my cookies to you, but would a letter do? It should be there tomorrow or friday." And he replied (of course) saying I was "so so so sweet!" ^-^ But I was still in the middle of the foreshadowing part saying, "I wanted to keep it a secret, but I'm so bad at keeping these things a secret!"

The funny part? Spending the last seven months learning French so I could write a series of letters for him in French and keeping the whole thing....a secret!!! Admittedly, I almost gave the secret away on more than one occasion. I thought this whole scenario was so funny, I started laughing so hard I was crying. "It's the best thing ever!" I squeaked.

Next thing I knew, I was sobbing my guts out for no reason! (#girlproblems) How does this happen? Why does this happen? Honestly, I don't know. And this is not the first time either. Similar instances have also occurred while on the phone with Jake, at the close of Gyver's Shack, and right before Jake left for Spain.

Cameron was like, "I can't even tell if you're laughing or crying!"
Me: #both!
I honestly think he didn't know what to do with the situation except try to diffuse it with lackluster humor. "Stop looking at me!" I told him as I rubbed my eyes. (#regrettingthatmascara) Can you say emotionally compromised? It's true; learning a new language has been a highly emotional journey, if only for the reasons (and the person!) behind it!

The Noise

This is the Life

Stats:

times cried: 2
close calls: 3
cups of coffee: 4
time difference between here and France: 9 hours
days until Jake comes back: 14
days until the 'rents come back: 5
feeling: industrious
listening to: "Hopeless Rom-Antics Super Shuffle"(mix) and Nickel Creek
reading: Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski
learning: to adapt when the plan falls through (flexibility)
highlights: iMessage works internationally(!!!), watching the light change, extreme productivity, meeting up with my mentor, warm coffee and a cozy spot on the couch outside Starbucks.

Weekly Update:

As I'm sure you can imagine, this week has been up and down. But after the emotional rollercoaster of Jake's departure for France and the circumstances surrounding it, I've settled into a rhythm of life. Wake up at 6. Feed Pat. Shoot Pat (insulin shot). Work in the yard while listening to music that reminds me of Jake. Eat Breakfast. Shower. Work. Clean. Sit on the back porch and watch the light change. Take pictures. Ask Siri what time it is in France. Scroll through the newsfeed on Facebook. Make dinner. Watch Movies. Write Jake another letter at the end of the day. Go to Sleep. And repeat. It's not a bad lifestyle, actually--minus Jake's absence of course. I've been feeling super productive between cleaning every flat surface in the kitchen and baking scones and hard labor in the yard (pictures coming soon) in the early mornings. I'm turning into a regular housewife! It's scaring me! The productivity helps a lot though and I find that while I miss Jake a lot, it's not a gnawing ache in my heart (or at least not as much as it could be).

Honestly, the part I'm having the most trouble with is the silence. All this silence is making me realize how much noise there is in my life--not just physical sound, but just mental...noise. Too many things clambering for my attention. Too many thoughts rolling through my head. And I still reach for my tunes. (Bluegrasss is playing in the background right now!) Jake and I talked about that recently--being surrounded with so much noise that you can't hear God. And I thought to myself, I don't really struggle with that, because I don't mind the silence. I don't mind being still, sitting on the back porch with my iced tea and just listening--a thoughtful kind of idleness. But the past two days... noise is all I crave. I love the quiet; I hate the quiet. I love the noise; I hate the noise. It takes all my willpower to turn off the music. 

We're getting along, but I will be glad when life returns to some form of normalcy, or when Jake gets back. Whichever happens first.

Little Shop of Horrors

I had the pleasure of hitching a ride out to San Diego with Jake's parents to see him perform in SDCC's spring musical Little Shop of Horrors. It was just a quick trip, but what fun!

Highlights included:

• Our impromptu tour guide Jim (who also hitched a ride with us)
• Lunch at a local Italian restaurant in Gila Bend
• Seeing the show (twice!)
• Catching all the added gags the second time
• Analyzing the hidden meanings of the show
• Leisurely breakfasts
• A mini-piano concert by Jake
• Meeting a CollegePlus student while striking the set!
• Running with Ms. Jessica in the park
• Multiple trips to Starbucks

The entire cast did a phenomenal job, but (not surprisingly) I thought Jake did the best of all! He played both of his roles (the dentist and the voice of the plant) very well and it was a joy to watch him perform, even though both his roles were antagonists. 

Spring Break!

 As I'm sure you can imagine, my schedule usually gets a little messed up when Jake comes to town, but he's gone again, so I should be posting more regularly until summer. We had an AWESOME week together, talking over coffee, watching movies (and analyzing character development!), song-writing, walking, playing frisbee, and hanging out with our respective families. It was a good week, well-spent, but not nearly long enough. It never is.

Where the Magic Happens

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of seeing where the "magic" happens when Jake and Dave write music. They showed me their space, taught me some lingo, and I got to witness the creation of a song from beginning to mid-recording. (I didn't get to see the whole process due to the lateness of the hour and the long drive home, but that's okay.) And I even got to use some of my literary expertise with the lyrics. They used my suggestions!!!!!

Biggest takeaway: Jake is one hot musician. There's a lot more that goes into writing and recording a song than I thought there was!

The Best Love Story of All (long)

Circa 2009

Jake's family has been somehow connected to ours for over 12 years. His mom, whom I affectionately called  (and still call)"Miss Jessica," taught my Sunday School class when I was six years old. Since her youngest son Joe was also in the class, she moved up every year with us and I grew under her tutelage. To be truthful, I don't actually remember when Jake first came on my radar, since he was older than me.

It could have been our sudden frequent exposure to the Coffin's three children, for reasons unbeknownst to me at the time. Mom and Dad constantly took us over to their house to play while the adults all went off to dinner. Cam and I weren't complaining though; we loved having playmates. We'd play hide-and-go seek in the house or huckle-buckle-bean-stalk or we'd watch veggietales while feasting on the hugest batches of popcorn we'd ever seen.

But I believe it was Fish Tales-- a cute little children's skit in which we both had the lead parts and the characters were in constant competition with one another. (Actually, the majority of our childhood friendship consisted of competition, most of which I think I initiated.) On one particular day while practicing the script my character had the parenthetical direction "lovingly" written before the line and somewhere deep in my 11-year-old mind I thought something along the lines of, "well I might as well start now!" Thus began a massive and enduring crush that lasted three and a half straight years. I was "madly in love" with Jake Coffin (secretly, of course!).

SD Day 4: Last Goodbyes

I think I've mentioned more than once that goodbyes are hard. Well, I'm here to say it again-- they don't get any easier!! After packing my last few belongings and stripping the bed, we spent a pleasant morning drinking tea out on the back porch and talking. The sunshine on my back was so lovely! Looking at him with our mugs of tea, I thought I could do this for a long time. And I am confident we will! But until next time, there are moments to be captured, adventures to be had, and yes, a few goodbyes to be said-- but it's not forever. Just for a little while.

Love you!

SD Day 3:Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Jake took me to his church this morning where he was drumming on the worship team. I had to get up at a whopping 7:00am- the earliest I've woken up all trip. But I had a wonderful experience at Summit church and everyone was very warm and friendly to me. ^-^ After service, a girl named Jasmine who was sitting next to me started asking me about me and Jake and soon I'd launched into the full-blown story of the history of our friendship and how we got together. It's one of those stories that I can really get into the telling of (naturally) and I can never contain my laughter!! As people filtered out of the auditorium, my laugh started echoing and Jake would pause from taking down equipment to smile at me and shake his head. Definitely a trip highlight.

After church, we cooked up a gourmet breakfast-lunch in the Edgar's kitchen together! (Cooking together in the kitchen?? Yes please!!) Scrambled eggs with peppers, spinach, and cheese; sliced apples; and a couple of croissants that I brought. It was a legit meal. Then the afternoon and evening was filled with Olympics-watching and piano playing and even more Olympics-watching! (My favorite!) We watched Meryl and Davis skate the free dance portion of team competition and of course they were phenomenal! They beat their personal best and received the highest score in the history of the event. Go USA!! A good way to end a good day.

SD Day 2:China to the Max

I took Jake to a legitimate Chinese restaurant here in San Diego-- our favorite, China Max. As we pulled into a jammed parking lot, I said, "Oh yeah, it's Chinese New Year, just so you know!" Haha the full disclosure would've been nice, but I spaced out about the holiday.

I took him because we raved and raved about their squid fries (pictured at center), but on this particular night, I wasn't feeling them nearly as much as the beef chow fun. I don't know what it was, but the chow fun was stellar this particular night. Service was a bit slow due to the crazy amount of Asians (myself included, I guess) but we didn't mind, since we like to sit and talk. Jake did pretty well with his chopsticks and he ate more squid than I expected him to! I think he liked it! 

SD Day 1: Ducks in the Park

In the afternoon, we grabbed some coffee and soup (white beam escarole) at a cute little local place with totally chic decorations hanging around the entrance. Jake talked linguistics with me, teaching me about the different phonetic sounds that make up language. Our attempts to pronounce certain sounds were so funny!

Right next to the coffee shop, there was a little park that we walked around in for the rest of the afternoon. We found a sweet little bridge where we watched some ducks and little blackbirds while we continued our conversations. We talked about the future, the past, life in general--all sorts of things. It was a great day for conversation.

SD Day 1:Touring the School

When Jake told me the school was "so much more professional," I didn't really know what to think. No picture came to my mind. But the campus is beautiful! We spent lunch in the cafeteria where I got to meet a lot of his friends, who entertained me with interesting anecdotes and jokes. Chris tried to convince a newcomer to the table that I was a government official evaluating the school's social atmosphere! The new kid *almost* bought it but I think my laughing was a dead giveaway!

After lunch, we got in trouble for tearing around the mud behind the school in Chris's car. Chris and a couple others were planning to shoot BB guns (which are technically not allowed) but Jake and I used the opportunity to take our leave and he gave me a personal tour of the school. The classrooms and the equipment are. All so fancy!! We stopped in to talk to Mr. Wilson and he showed me the practice rooms where we paused to play piano.

He played a few songs and we played a couple duets. He taught me the high part of a piece that he wrote. It was a very fun piece, reminicient of "the entertainer." It took a lot of patience (on his part) but I was starting to get it!! I didn't take six years of piano for nothing, I told him. But I appreciate his patience and the way he teaches.

Oh shoot-dang! :O

Today's the Day!!

As promised, now I'm telling you about my exciting trips coming up!!

This evening, I'm flying out to see this guy!!!!

And I am so so excited! Words can't even describe. I'll be staying with some family friends in San Diego and Jake's going to show me around his school! Between classes and play rehearsals, we're planning to spend lots of time hanging out, watching Olympics, going out to my favorite Chinese restaurant and maybe even visit the beach! (Walking along the beach together? How romantic!) I'm not taking my laptop with me, but I'm hoping to be able to post a few pictures or blurbs from my iPad.

Then, three days after I return from San Diego, I leave again, this time in the opposite direction! I'm going to Houston, TX for a few jam-packed days at the Passion Conference!! Some friends of min attended last year and said it was an incredible, life-changing experience! Unfortunately, this means I will be busy on my favorite holiday of the year (Valentine's Day), which means no Disney Princess marathons with my gal pals, but we'll save that for another time. Meanwhile, I shall be gallivanting across the country, but I hope to do a few updates when I can.

The trouble with long-distance relationships

June 2013; this picture is my favorite <3 td="">

Jake left again for San Diego after church today. When people find out that we're long-distancing it, they always tell me things like, "Wow, that must be so hard." or "I would never be able to do that." as if long-distance relationships are the cause of some unbearable burden. My response usually goes something like, "Yeah, it's hard but we're good communicators and we make it work."

The truth is, long-distance relationships are hard, but not because they require work. Any relationship requires work. They're hard because you're constantly forcing yourselves to say goodbye. At the end of every visit, every break, every skype conversation, every phone call.... The rational part of me knows there will be many good-byes ahead of us; and I can't get hung up over each one.

You'll see him again soon.

I know, but this is my heart speaking--and goodbyes still hard. My throat still clenches, when I watch him drive away. I damn up my tears, priding myself too much on my ability to "keep it all together." But they always come out in the end and this time was no different. You'd think with time and practice, goodbyes would become easier, but I guess there are some things that never change and saying goodbye is one of them.

Coffee and Fries

                                             

Keepin it classy at the only place where you can have coffee AND french fries! We heard through Spotify that mcDonalds is giving out free coffee...Say what?? Well, it's true. And what college student doesn't like free stuff (especially free coffee)? We are definitely not breaking any stereotypes here!

Christmas Eve on Mt. Lemmon

It is usually our custom to go up on Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow every year on Christmas Eve. This year, however, Dad had to work and he couldn't take us, so we went up by ourselves! There was not very much, but the snow was compact-ible enough for snowballs and snowmen. But mostly, we just hung out and kicked around the fluffy stuff. We also brought Dad's nice camera for higher quality pictures. Unfortunately, we are not high-quality photographers, but we manged to get a number of good photos!

Ever since I learned the rule of thirds, I've been trying to incorporate it into my pictures. So far, it's going okay. I could probably learn a lot from a basic photography class!

The three of us had fun though, and that's all that matters. This evening, we had our Christmas Eve service where my Mandolin debuted for my favorite folksy Christmas song, "Oh What a Beautiful City." Cam and I sang with the Coffin family and it all sounded so beautiful!! That family is a regular choir! We had 50 people turn out to the service, making it our most successful since we began! Numbers aside, I think the most precious part is singing carols together. What a great way to close out the night before celebrating Christ's birth tomorrow!

Photoshoot

Earlier this month, Kerri got her siblings (and the girlfriends, and a few family friends) together to take pictures, which she printed and framed for miss Jessica's Christmas gift. Now that Christmas is over, I can post them. Here are some of the best ones:

Group. Photos:

The siblings:

The boys:

The girls:

And of course, me and Jake: