Labor Flavor Saver Day

Today is Labor day. To celebrate my roommates and I wanted to go out for a day of fun.
First, we planned to visit the new location of Whimsic Alley, an all Harry Potter store that moved from Santa Monica to a larger location in downtown LA.
But when we checked the website last night to get directions, "closed Labor Day."
Drat.
So we came up with new plans! We would go check out the British Grocer and all the awesome vintage shops in downtown Fullerton.
To make it extra special, we arranged to meet Kristina for the day since she lives in Brea close by and had the day off.

So we started the day off by gettin' some grub. After being turned down yet again by a "closed Labor Day" sign, we found the coolest Mexican joint that has about everything plus mexican food.
So we filled our bellies with cheap bean, cheese, guacamole, chips, and salsa-y goodness. And continued on to our buisness a couple blocks over to the main street of downtown Fullerton.

One more "closed Labor Day" sign on the British Grocer was a lump in our hearts, as we were very much looking forward to delectable English goodies. But Buffalo Exchange was open, so we weren't at a complete loss.
Most of our time was then spent going back and forth to the racks from the dressing room, trying on an endless amount of second hand clothing, trying to see if the fit and look was just right, as well as the price.
Kenny and Jojo came out of that one empty handed, but Kristina and I (Brenna) picked up a few awesome items. Kristina got two really cute tops and a brown/green/purple dress that looks amazing on her. I walked out of there with an amazing cranberry colored vintage dress, a cardigan sweater vest that I'm going to take in a bit before I wear it every day for the entire fall season, and a super adorable Anthropologie shirt that still had it's tag on it that I bought for about $62 less than than the original price.
Pretty awesome if you ask me.
Then we hopped across the street to American Vintage.
This store makes my entire soul weep and melt into a puddle of sorrow.
There are so many amazing vintage finds at this place. I'm talking a whole store row of gorgeous vintage dresses. Most of them over $30. many over $50. The unreachable beauty hurts.
But it's not all bad!! Kenny found a fashionable black belt and Jojo scored with a super cute pair of heels, an owl necklace, and a amazingly comfy man shirt that she hasn't stopped talking about since she bought it.
We ended the day with a quick trip to Starbucks to indulge in the delicious fall flavors they now offer.

Later on today, after being back home an getting dinner, we journeyed over to the opposite side of Hope Hall to the guys floor to deliver some homemade cookies to friends of ours over there. I should also mention that he happens to be one of two RAs on the floor, meaning he's one of the head honchos. So we gave him the cookies, and chatted for a while about  bikes and injuries. We were there for a good 30 minutes or so, with the door open (as it should be) and various guys on the floor walking by. When our friend, Dillon, got a text from his partner RA. It was a reminder that today is Monday and that there are no open hours on Monday.
All four of us had been so thrown off by the extra day of no school that we didn't realize that it wasn't the weekend. So we quickly exited the hall, gave our apologies to Dillon and his RA friend on duty in the lobby, and said our farewells.

And so the day ends with a quiet, warm room filled with the aromas of tea and hot cocoa. Kenny is reading away at a text book on the couch while Jojo is typing away at her computer working of french homework. And I'm sitting in my cozy chair surrounded by paper stars and flamingo lights, writing away about our day's epic adventures.
So now I will bid you all a fond farewell until next time, when we will once again tell of our grand travels and silly shenanigans.
-Brenna Kathleen

Junior Year...WOW

It's here...junior year that is. Un-be-lieve-able!

We all arrived on Saturday. Kenny drove down from Santa Rosa with her mom. Brenna drove up from San Diego with her parents. I flew in from MN with my luggage. We got the room arrangement figured out quickly, much to our relief. Didn't want a repeat of last year's craziness. This year's ease was probably due to the fact that we brought less stuff, all three beds are lofted instead of just two, and there's no tv.

Our set-up is pretty nice. We all have places under our beds for "personal space," plus the couch and coffee table for shared space. Also, there's floor space for visiting friends too! There's some nice ambient lighting too, so our room has a little more atmosphere. We're still on HUSH, the first floor of Hope South, but our room overlooks the front of the building, instead of the back. We won't get the sometimes nice, sometimes annoying afternoon sunlight, but we have the lights on the outdoor terrace to look at during the evenings.

Coming in our door!

Jojo's bed space, to the left of the door.

View walking in the door, Jojo and Brenna's beds on the left, Kenny's bed and the wardrobes on the right.

Brenna's bed space.

Fridge between Jojo and Brenna's beds.

Kenny's bed area.

View from the window.

We all had busy summers. Kendall was in her brother's wedding, went to India on a missions trip, volunteered at a camp for a couple days, and worked at a gift shop. Brenna went to Germany on a missions trip, worked in a theatre, and "thrifted." I, Jojo, worked an internship at a magazine publishing company, worked an internship with my dad's company, worked a part-time job serving in the dining hall of a senior housing facility, and hung out with friends/family/boyfriend. Whew! *We all have personal blogs, so check those for more info.*

So, yeah. We're here again. Catching up with friends, meeting new floormates, spending lots of money at Target, going to Starbucks, etc. Classes start on Wednesday. Until then, we're just hanging around here. Brenna works Monday night, I have staff orientation for The Point Monday and Tuesday, and Kenny...she'll just be chilling I guess.

That's the latest from First South!

-Jojo

Secret Agents

As some of you may know, Room 111 loves the television show Chuck. We love the comedy, stories, characters, and the awesome spy action. We joke around with associating ourselves to certain characters in the show, and since a recent mission that Kenny and Jojo went on to recover some "important government information," we seemed to have created an entire spy network on Biola's campus.
So now w--

--Incoming TOP SECRET transmission--

....now accessing secret agent profiles.......

Agent Sarah Walker

- Trained in hand-to-hand combat and firearms

-Highly skilled with throwing knives.


- Recruited by the CIA at 18 after Father was
put in jail.

Agent Hannah Orion

-Technological mastermind



-Specializes in Languages and Dialects



-Kicked out of Harvard, Yale, and MIT before the age of 16


-Recruited shortly after by the CIA





Agent Ellie Bartowski

- A Femme Fatal, trained in the martial arts


- Skilled in toxicology and nuclear medicine


- Recruited by the CIA at age 19, after blowing up
her university's science building.






......logging out of profiles.....


---Ending TOP SECRET transmission---


--ded up going all around campus! It was crazy!
Anyways, that's all for now! finals and stuff are keeping us really busy, so I've got to get going.

-Brenna Kathleen

Replay Cover: the Tashes

Just a lil something we put together today. Enjoy!

-Jojo

Amazing races and zombie apocalypses of Olympic proportions

Let me just say that it has been one of the most eventful weekends on campus in Biola's history. Well, okay, maybe that's a gross exaggeration, but it has been the most eventful weekend of this semester, and it's not even over yet people! We will see what Sunday holds... but back to the reason I'm writing THIS blog...

The weekend really started for us yesterday (okay, duh, it was friday...) when my roommates, I, and two of our guy friends, Dillon and Austin, went on our floor's GYRAD (aka "Get Your Roommate A Date"). GYRADs are an old Biola tradition, where you go out for a night and usually do something awesome and random... I will leave it at that. What we ended up doing for this one was going on an Olympic themed Amazing Race along Beach Blvd. which ended with a bonfire and Taco Bell at Huntington Beach.

So the five of us dressed and yellow and decked ourselves out as team China, met in the lobby, and got going on our first challenge and clue. It was cut-throat, exciting, and fairly dangerous (due to some crazy... yet still somehow safe driving *cough cough*), but worth every gasp, leap, and running step! We couldn't have asked for a better team ^_^.

But, I must say that before all of the riddle-reading, clue-solving, lane-cutting, Dizzy-bowling, Pyramid-making, frisbee-golfing, face-painting, line-dancing, taco-eating, and whatever else you can hyphen together, the best and perhaps most exciting thing about the entire shenanigan occured. This, my friends, would be the way in which we asked our dear friends to tag along with us on this grand adventure!

About a week before GYRAD, the three of us dressed in the garb of a made-up character of our choice and traversed campus to go meet our friends in their dorm

room. Little did they know what was coming when we asked if they were currently in their room. Brenna dressed as a french man named Jaques, complete with a smashing french mustache, Jojo dressed as a slick beatnik named Claude (she had a gotee), and I was a dang awesome cowboy named Charlie (I got to sport a nice handle-bar). Together, we called our little band "the Tashes". Brenna played the Uke, I played the guitar, Jojo was on spoons, and we all sang in order to serenade and win the aquiescence of our potential GYRAD dates.

What did we sing you ask? None other than our very own rendition of the hip-hop song "Replay" by lyaz. We revamped it to fit the occassion,

and thought it turned out pretty well. I'm guessing it must have been pretty sweet, because they ended up saying yes... but they may have only said yes because our ridiculous outfits and mustaches were so awesome that they could hardly handle it... the topic is up for debate. Anyways, our time and effort payed off and it was probably the most awesome and original way to ask someone on a GYRAD... or anything for that matter ;).

Now that you've heard that heartwarming story, it's time to talk about the zombies. Last night when we got

home from GYRAD to find out that the power all across campus had gone off while we were out on our adventure. We figured all we'd have to deal with was the alarm that followed, but when we woke up the next morning, we noticed that the power kept surging on and off for about an hour. We thought "hey, whatever! This could be fun"... but then it didn't come back on for 11 hours...

We felt like we were in a movie or some freaky, psycho social experiment. Campus-wide we had no power, yet everything surrounding us did. As the rain fell hard outside and rumors of earthquakes and tsunamis swirled in our minds, we watched the sun gradually set outside our window, wondering what was going to happen when the entire campus became pitch black. In the course of the night it came back on once, for maybe an hour, ruining all plans we had of sneaking around campus fighting a zombie apocalypse with our nerf guns.

When it went off again, Jojo and I dropped what we were doing and ran back to the dorm to come to the aid of a very distressed Brenna. We grabbed our nerf guns and flashlights and picked up a friend of ours as we were walking out of the dorm. We travelled across campus, under the pitch black parking garage, and took our friend Grace back to her dorm room. We explored various different floors of her dorm, and then the lights sadly came back on... for good this time. So we dropped her off at her room, seeing to it that she was safe from all threats, and proceeded to the dorm next door in order to check up on our good friend Dillon (yes, the very same Dillon who went on GYRAD with us the night before). We figured we might as well not let our ammunition go to waste (seeing as we didn't run into any zombies. ), so we hid in the lobby and called poor, unsuspecting Dillon down.

Shots were fired, laughs were enjoyed, conversation was made, and then we made our way back into the night, with joy in our hearts at the fact that we saved our campus and dear friends from a zombie apocalypse. I do wish the power was still out... but hey, I guess I can't complain too much that the luxuries of Biola life have returned once more... though I can't deny I felt totally BA running across campus in the pitch dark with a nerf gun! Well, that's all for now! Stay safe all! And if the power goes out again, keep your flashlights and nerf guns nearby!

~Kendall :)

Hello New Year, New Decade, New Semester!!

WE'RE BACK!!

*and there was much rejoicing*

Ok, ok. I should be honest.

*and there was a head nod and a few grunts*

Wow. We can hardly believe 6 weeks went by so quickly!! It seems like we just left school and now we're here again! Totally. Crazy. But we all had a great time on our respective breaks.

Speaking for solely for myself, this was the best break from school (counting Thanksgiving, spring break, summer, Labor Day etc.) I've had in a while. It was so good to see my family, friends, boyfriend, and dog. The boy and I celebrated our one year dating anniversary. He took me out to dinner and to see The Beauty and the Beast at the Ordway, which was fantastic! We also both celebrated our 20th birthdays, though he had to be at school for mine, which was rather a bummer.

I also got to have a lot of other fun adventures, with him and with others, such as sledding, ice skating, playing board games, going swing dancing, baking, seeing The Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater, shopping, watching movies and tv shows, etc. Let's just say I kept busy.

But now that's all over and here we are again!

Last weekend, before classes started, we had fun just hanging out and having a good time. On Sunday, after church, Brenna and Kendall blindfolded me and took me to an outdoor mall in Irvine for my birthday. It was really cool for me, since chilly ol' Minnesota doesn't have outdoor malls. It just wouldn't be practical. Anyway, we poked around in a few stores and Kenny and Brenna both bought some cute things. I kept my money in my pocket.

But the best part, by far, was the carousel ride! We were like little kids again, except we rode side-saddle because of our skirts. It was very fun. I hadn't been on a carousel in years and it was great. Normally, I'm more of a roller coaster/intense G's sort of ride person, but carousels are still thoroughly enjoyable.

We ate an early dinner at Red Robin and then headed back to campus. Kendall and I played frisbee later that night, and it was great to see all the old frisbee friends again.

Our first week of classes went fairly well. It was a rather long week though, and it's hard to readjust to doing hw all the time, instead of what we want to do. But we've got three semesters under our belts, so I'm sure we'll be just fine.

That's all from the First South girls for now. Gotta do some hw.

*EDIT*

Well, my roomies are officially the coolest and most crafty people I know. They just surprised me with a birthday party and cleverly arranged everything without me even getting the tiniest bit suspicious. Ladies and gentlemen, I live with brilliant people. A ton of my friends jumped out from behind couches when I walked into our floor's lounge tonight. I had been totally oblivious up to that point. We had cookies and cupcakes, played Guitar Hero, and watched THE DARK KNIGHT!!! (Only my most favorite movie ever.) It was lovely, and I am in awe of their deviousness. Kudos to them all.

-Jojo

San Diego Winter Update

It seems that I have been given the charge to update this poor wee blog.
Well, As I am on my own I can only update on what has been happening with me.

Now, let us see.... I have been working on some changes regarding my personal style. It's description is "Nerdy Vintage Chic." And I must say it's been going rather well. I have had very good visits to thrift stores and other places. And have procured several skirts and sweater sets. I've taken this style change to also work on other parts of my life. More style changes in decor of home, that I'm afraid wont be put into play until I am out of the sharing living space situation. But I'm also brushing up on my mystery stories and getting a good dosage of England in the 1940's by watching lots of Miss Marple.

I've been getting some work as a file clerk for a tax clinic. I've been working on and off for them since high school, so it's nice to be able to come back and do some filing for extra money.

Other than that I've been searching the web for pictures of whimsy and inspiration.
Hope you all have wonderful rest of breaks!

-Brenna Kathleen

From Cross 'til Now

Sooooooooooo... I figure it takes at least that long of a "so" to express my utter shame at the fact that I have not written on this blog in what, at least 5 months? perhaps even longer? I'm sure my much loved friends will be more than willing to clarify that little detail ;).

So, I'm going to give my little recap and "take" on this semester and all its shenanigans, and perhaps this will remotely begin to make up for my past failures? Hey, a girl can hope... Anyways... as you've seen from said friend's past and recent posts, it has been a very, very interesting-jam-packed-eventful-off-your-rocker-betty-crocker-kinda semester. School itself kind of really sucked for all of us this semester... but that's okay because it rocked in other ways that more than made up for it! We made tons of new, aweseome friends, including Dillon and Austin from the tunnel adventure, Kathy, Alyssa and Megumi from our floor, Jason, Raquel, Gillian, Tiffany, Rachel, and the list goes on :). God blessed us so much with all of these people this semester, and thankfully, with their help and jojo and brenna's help, I somehow made it through this semester without losing my mind and everything else along with it.

I've been through a ton this semester, from awesome things like the cross and tunnel adventures to not so awesome things like my grandfather dying. But through it all God has been so gracious and SO good in teaching me what I can take from all of these starkly contrasted experiences. I am so thankful for my friends and even the simple little joys they bring to my life :). You have all heard about the tunnel adventure... so I will relate to you the cross adventure, the brilliant start of my semester!

Right off the running blocks my semester was admittedly pretty darn bomb... First weekend I got to go with a large group of friends to the John Williams concert in Hollywood! And if that didn't make the night epic, what four of my friends and I did afterward more than made up for that. Jason Leith, Christine Fuchs, Christopher Girard, Riley Gilmore and I piled into a jeep and went on an hour's search for the base of the hollywood hill that has the giant illuminated cross on top of it... for what reason you might ask? What else but to climb it and go to the cross! As Jason put on the song "lead me to the cross" by Hillsong, we drove the confusing one-way streets of Hollywood at 11 o'clock at night, searching for the infamous hill with the giant glowing cross. After failing one attempt and being warned by locals of the hill's danger, we finally found a sketch backroad that led us to a hill that we were sure was at least close to the one we wanted.

And then we climbed... in dresses and sandals and dress slacks we climbed the less than pleasant terrain (i.e. extremely steep hills covered in dirt that slid right out from under us, various cacti, prickles and pointy grasses) until we finally had to resign ourselves from shoes and just go barefoot. Let me tell you, that trip was friendship and character building... we had NO idea where exactly we were going, and we had to help each other the entire way up, else I'm pretty sure we never would have made it. As we climbed, we realized that the hills just kept going... pretty soon one hill turned into five or six, and after passing by a camp of sleeping homeless people and being scared out of our minds by a jack rabbit, we came out on top of what really ended up being more of a mountain than a hill (well... it would definitely be a mountain if we were back east... lol).

There we saw it... on the hill BELOW us... As the five of us descended down a rocky pathway, all of us were blown away by the scene before us: a 200 foot tall, illuminated cross in the foreground of the still entirely lit city of Los Angeles stretching as far as the eye could see! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. When we reached it we took a moment to observe our surroundings, and after a few minutes of recooperations from minor injuries, we decided we should do something worthwhile after all of that effort. For some stretch of time the five of us took turns praying over the city so conveniently laid out before us. Then we sang a few worship songs that we all knew and prayed for each other and the semester to come.

After we had remenisced about how crazy we were and how our recent journey and its difficulties perfectly mirrored the realities of a Christian's walk with God, we made our way down a different way so that we wouldn't die... and after walking down the same sketch road we drove in on, found the jeep. We high-tailed it out of there, hit up some Tommy's for 2:30 am chili burgers, went home, showered all of the caked dirt off, and nesteled into bed around 3, 3:30 in the morning.

It was freaky, it was daring, and I can't deny that there were times that we all got pretty freaked out of our minds... But all in all, what is an adventure without all of those things included :)? And now we can say, whenever we think about that night or see that cross, that we didn't just go back to Biola and hit up some Inn-N-Out after the concert... No, my friends... we went to the cross.

~Kendall

The Wait is Over! (Tunnel Adventure)

Well, I guess I had better write about our tunnel adventure like Brenna promised I would. (Or else she might beat me up...hahaha! Riiiiiiight.)

It was a dark and stormy night. Not really. But in honor of one of my favorite "great" writers, I figured I would begin this tale in that manner.

To be honest, it was a California night like any other: a little chilly, no matter the daytime temperature. Dillon and Austin met us at Hope shortly after we ambushed them in Horton with our Nerf guns. We were dressed warmly in clothes that could withstand the unknown dirty dangers that lay in wait. Dillon was the only one who had previously explored the dark depths of the drainage tunnel to which we were headed, and because of the recent inundation of rain, even he didn't know quite what to expect.

We began our adventure by exiting the lower end of campus, sliding under a walking bridge that crossed the stream that runs through campus. A couple steps later, we spotted a large pipe, also spanning the waterway. Dillon informed us that we had to shimmy across it. He led the way, followed by myself, Austin, Brenna, and Kendall. The pipe wiggled under our weight as we slid along, which wasn't exactly a comforting sensation. We managed to traverse the pipe successfully, albeit slowly, without major mishap (i.e. falling about ten feet into the stream below).

After Dillon's menial mental capacities allowed him to recall the specific location of the drainage tunnel, we cautiously crept down the steep embankment to its mouth. Since Kendall had lost the "nose goes" game earlier, she was the lucky adventurer selected to lead the expedition into the darkness.

We shook hands and exchanged grim looks, fully aware of the perilous course we had set for ourselves. I fixed my comrades with a firm gaze and murmured, "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave." The beams from five flashlights cut through the inky darkness as, one by one, we entered the cavern. Five began the voyage. We didn't know how many would complete it. But with courage in our hearts and shakiness in our knees, we set out to conquer the mile-long tunnel.

Ok, maybe I embellished that last bit, but if I had been calm enough to think clearly at the time we entered the tunnel, it might have wound up looking something like that. As it was, I could hardly stop the adrenaline shivers that raced through my body.

Long story short, the tunnel was awesome. There was some "interesting" graffiti on the walls, our feet got wet from accidentally stepping in the trickle of water running through the tunnel, and a multitude of less-than desirable companions joined us (i.e. cockroaches and spiders), but the journey was well worth it. We explored a side tunnel, which led to a rectangular room with a drain at the top, but quickly returned to the main tunnel when we saw a suspicious spider. Dillon hid and tried to scare us, but failed because we were expecting it. I had no trouble standing up straight in the tunnel, and it wasn't too short for Brenna and Kendall either. The guys weren't so lucky.

When the tunnel finally reached its end, we found ourselves in a small triangular space, covered in a pool of water a few inches deep and surrounded by 5.5 foot cement walls. Dillon and I had little trouble scaling these walls and standing on the top. The other three found this a little more difficult. Dillon pulled Austin up (with a little help from Kendall and Brenna down below?). That just left Kendall and Brenna. I hopped back down, and with the guys lifting from above and me pushing from below, the girls scrambled their way to the top of the wall. Lastly, the guys lifted me up by my arms. A few chain-link fences later, and we were in the La Mirada park, ready to walk back to campus.

After a couple valiant attempts by the guys to catch some water fowl in the park (they came pretty dang close) and running across a street (during which I had the grace and nimbleness to trip over the curb and fall flat on my face), we returned to campus. We were tired and dirty, but in high spirits. No adventure could have been more epic.

We finished our night off with an appearance at Study Break in the Caf, where we fed our weary bodies. Then we parted ways with the guys and went back to Hope, to savor hot showers and comfy, warm beds.

So there you have it. Easily the most monumental escapade of our semester. Hope you enjoyed living vicariously through us. We're all home now, and perhaps we'll have stories to relate in the near future. Check back and see.

Merry Christmas!

-Jojo

Surprise Attacks, Tunnel Adventures, and Wishing Upon A Star[bucks]

Brenns here.

And it's Finals week!!! Jojo and I are currently studying at the Starbucks on the corner of Biola. Well, Jojo is studying. I'm finishing a paper and taking a break to blog about our awesome night last night!

I just decided that I'm going to let Jojo tell all of you about the tunnel adventure, since she is the story-telling extrordinaire.

But the rest of the night went like this!

Church- Epic... see my blog to hear just how epic I think it was

After church we stopped by Target so I could pick up my Nerf gun!!! Woot! After much practicing we then decided to go to Horton and attack our friends. But not until after my Chess game!

I was a White Knight. I got to kill a pawn, a knight, and the QUEEN!!!!! Muahahaha!!! The entire time I was singing "I'm in a box!" to the tune of I'm on a boat. I was also recreating this video. And singing the song "my white knight"from The Music Man.

After that I went on a McDee's run with my 4D peeps, since we were STARVING!!!! Then we got back in time to go massacre our friends in Horton, along with others in Emerson and those we met along the way back to Hope.

After that was The Great Tunnel Adventure! You'll hear about that after finals week, when Jojie has time to write.

Now we're in Starbucks. Kensington joined us.

How Jojo feels about studying:

Papers!

All of Jojie's French flash cards:

Me, hiding behind my comptuer, per usual:

and Coffee!!!! the thing that gets us through:

That's all for now! I'm sure the next post will be much more enjoyable. I saved the best part for the best writer.

Good luck on finals and such!

-Brenna Kathleen

A Very Halloweenie Day

Sorry we haven't updated in a while. We've all been pretty busy. But we've still been having some fun times!! For Brenna's 20th birthday, Kendall and I made her an awesome scavenger hunt. Then all her friends piled into our room to surprise her when we got back. It was pretty awesome!

But that's obviously not the real reason for this post. Today was Halloween. Naturally, we went all out in the costume department.

Brenna dressed as Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series.

Kendall was a dementor, again from Harry Potter.

And, me, breaking with the HP theme, I went as a Scrabble tile!

Our friend Amber was a flower.

And our buddy Lydia was a lumberjack man. :D

We decided to go trick-or-treating, because we wanted free candy and especially because Kenny has only been trick-or-treating once before. But beforehand, we needed to head on over to Chipotle to get our free burritos!! We wrapped parts of our costume in tinfoil in order to secure said complimentary food. But when we got there, we realized that everyone else had the same idea. The line was HUGE (and the picture doesn't do it justice)!! But tooootally worth it!

After enjoying our free food, we drove to this neighborhood our friend had told us about. She had gone trick-or-treating there last year and had received a ton of candy. We, unfortunately, weren't so lucky. We each probably got about 30 pieces of candy, if that. It bummed us out a bit, but it was still fun.

A lot a people couldn't quite figure out what we all were. People recognized Brenna as a Harry Potter character, but most didn't recognize her as Luna specifically. Kendall was mistaken for death, a ring wraith, or just a creepy person in general. People were confused about my costume, thinking I was part of a math problem or an element on the periodic table. One girl even thought I was an M&M...WHAT!?!? One elderly man recognized Amber as a flower. And Lydia...I don't think anyone argued that one.

When we got back to campus, we walked around for a bit and ventured down to the painting studio in McNally. There, we happened to spot a guy dressed as a ring wraith (from Lord of the Rings) walking through the parking lot. Lydia freaked out and told Kenny to go have an epic battle with him. Due to a wardrobe malfunction, Kendall wasn't quite able to catch up with him. But we all cut across a field to cut him off as he made his way to the gate leading down to Hart Hall. We must have looked hilarious...a dark blob, a waddling square, a school girl, foliage, and a fat man running as fast as they could and shrieking with laughter.

We met up with the ring wraith right in front of the sand volleyball courts, where some friends of ours were playing. There, on the sidewalk, with an audience on both sides, highlighted by the volleyball court lights, an epic battle took place. Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings. Dementor vs. Ring Wraith. Kenny didn't have a weapon, since dementors only suck souls, so she was at a slight disadvantage. But she fought as hard as they could and after a bit, they just parted ways. We stood in awe as we watched the ring wraith walk off into the darkness.

There's a bit more to this story, such as Luna trying to help the dementor (lol, never thought that would ever happen) with a spell and us following the ring wraith and talking with him, but it's late, and it's too complicated to record accurately. Besides, you've already heard the best part.

All in all, it was a pretty good Halloween. Hope yours was wonderful as well!

-Jojo

This is How We Spend Our Friday Nights

This past Friday, Kendall went to the movie Up with some of her other friends. Brenna and I had already seen it, so we didn't particularly feel like going to it again. Instead, we stayed in our room, poking around on the internet and being bored.

Bored, that is, until Brenna asked to play with my Play-Doh. After a while, I joined her. We spent a few minutes creating your ordinary Play-Doh creatures: snowman, dog, pig, etc. Then I made a dinosaur, Brenna made a mini city, we got out my camera, and the rest is history.

-Jojo

Haiku to life

evil evil life
life is so flippin' evil
evil evil life


written after [edit] 5 hours of sleep with bloodshot eyes

Our Embarrassing Adventure of the New Semester

Leave it to us. 

We WOULD accidentally go to a new student mixer not realizing the "new" part of it. So now everyone who saw us there probably thinks we're freshmen. And if they bothered to engage us in conversation, and found out that we're really sophomores, they might have come to the conclusion that we're transfers. Or just stupid. (Which is what I happen to lean towards.)

It probably should have dawned on us shortly after we arrived that it was just for new students. We already know some people on our hall, and in our dorm, whether by name or face, and none of those people were in attendance. 

But no. We merrily continued socializing with the new people. Our RAs probably figured it out first, but they, being fine ladies of tact, didn't mention our silliness. Part way through, one of them mentioned that we weren't freshman, or sophomore transfers, but just new to the dorm, and then it dawned on me. The sign had read "New Student" mixer. Not "Bumbling Sophomore" mixer. Not "Weren't Really Paying Attention to the Sign" mixer. Not "Glad All Those College Classes Paid Off Because You Clearly Don't Know How to Read" mixer.

By the time I realized our predicament, it was too late to escape. But as soon as was humanly possible, we made our hasty exit. As we ran down the stairs from the fourth floor balcony where the mixer had been held, we laughed at our accidental mistake, and proclaimed that more people should hang out with us, cause the funniest stuff always happens to us.

-Jojo

This is why we're all roommates.....

I'm sure that no matter what sort of hardships we go through this year. No matter how hectic, messy, or clean things get between the three of us there will always be the little things that connect us.

Like tea cups.

We're all different and similar in many ways. And I know for a fact that we'll all have our moments this year when we're silently steaming at one another, not realizing that we all know when the other is upset.

And we'll all have our grand adventures and amazing moments. The quote board will be filled to the brim. And our facebook photo albums will be many.

I'm so blessed to know you two. You're both honestly a gift from God. I know we always talk about how odd it is we met. Kenny in the bathroom, Jojo because we were neighbors and played a game of BS that first night.

Our first year of college was unpredictable. Who knew we'd become sisters? Who knew we'd all be excited every Tuesday night about our weekly Chuck episode? Who knew we'd make friends with a bunch of guys who like Disney and play Ultimate Frisbee? Or discover the most amazing joghurt place in the known universe!

We'll be reunited in a mere 3 days.

We can return to Biola with confidence, now that we know our way around and know so many amazing people and professors.

I can't wait to discover what God has in store for us this year. And I can't wait to update this blog with tales of our epic shenanigans.

Love you guys!

-Brenna Kathleen

Waffle Irons

My life is the best. Seriously. I'm not joking.

My summer at Trout just recently ended. Nate came to pick me up on Saturday and bring me home. After seemingly hundreds of hugs and goodbyes, we headed on our way. As we drove through a little town called Crosby, my antiquing gene started to flare up, so we stopped to poke around a bit. You have to understand that Crosby has more antique shops than people. I'm not lying. Really. It's the antique capital of northern MN.

Before I continue with my little tale, you must know that I am a big fan of coffee/tea cups. If you have kept up with my personal blog, you know how excited I was to get my new red mug last year. I was elated. I am quite selective, and have little storage space at college, so my collection is small, but it is very near and dear to my heart. Vintage tea cups are the best, since they're often cheap and have much more character than modern cups. And since I'm a college student lacking a dishwasher, it doesn't matter that they're not dishwasher safe.

So as I entered into the dens of antiquity, I was especially mindful of the chinaware displays. At one of the shops, I snagged a bulbous green teacup and a dainty tan coffee mug. Grand total: $4. Grand total after Nate's generosity: $0. A few shops down the sidewalk, I came across a blue teacup too good to pass up. I plopped it down on the counter and the older woman behind it began to ring it up. Like any self-respecting small-towner, she began a conversation with me, questioning why I was buying one teacup. I told her I was fond of them and had just bought two at another store. Her response was something like this: "Yeah I used to get turned on by waffle irons. I'd see a different style and have to buy it. You know how many different types of waffle irons there are?"

As if it couldn't get any better (WAFFLE IRONS!?!), a man just about to leave the shop piped up, proclaiming, "Probably about 500. There's the ones that make a big round waffle, some with four smaller square waffles, and some with pictures on the top." This prompted the saleslady to remark, "Yeah, and then I realized what the hell am I doing?" She then attempted to sell me these really weird blue glass "mugs," but I was too wise for her. Nate paid for the mug ($5) and we made a swift exit, somehow managing to hold our laughter in until we made it a few steps outside the door.

This is a completely true story. No joke. My life is hilarious.

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Ogallala, Nebraska right now, trying to figure out if I should go to bed or not. I also need to order textbooks...boo hiss! Two days until I set foot on California soil again.

-Jojo

Taking a Break from Summer

Hello friends!

Wow! Where do I even begin? At the beginning? That sounds like a nice place to start.

Well, after my family and I survived three straight days of driving, we arrived back at home in Minnesota. It was sooo nice to finally be home. I spent the first day or so sorting through everything I brought back with me. Whew! What a task! I also spent a lot of time hanging out with my boy and catching up with a few other friends. It was a good week and a half.

Following that, I packed up again and drove up to northern MN to work at Trout Lake Camps for the summer. I'm employed as a counselor, watching over 8-12 young girls every week. It doesn't pay much, but it's lots of fun.

It can also be pretty challenging sometimes. The first week of camp, I had a down syndrome camper in my cabin. She was a total sweetheart, but it was her first time away from her parents for an extended period of time, which presented some issues. Yet despite all of my confusion and frustration with learning how to take care of her, it was a blessing to have her in my cabin. One night when I was taking her to the nurse (she had frequent stomach aches), she looked at me and said, "You're nice." I think my heart melted right out of my chest and dribbled down into my flip-flops. It made it all worthwhile.

We did have one extremely interesting night however. On Thursday, there were some thunderstorms coming through the area, which freaked many of the girls out. When my CIT (counselor in training) and myself finally got the girls calmed down, I began to say our evening prayer. Just then the smoke detector started going off (it had low batteries). Of course that caused a huge fiasco, resulting in one of the program staff members coming to cut the dang detector off the ceiling. We ended up getting to bed 45 minutes after lights out. Looking back on it now, it's a humorous story, but at the time, I was exhausted and nearly at the end of my rope.

The second week of camp, I went with Trout's VBS (Vacation Bible School) program to assist a church with running their VBS. It was SOO much fun. Andy, one of the male counselors, and myself worked with the third-graders, and they were totally awesome. The families at the church were all really great too! The host family I stayed with was so gracious and it was refreshing not to have campers in my sleeping quarters at night. I needed to catch up on sleep after the week before.

The sleeping arrangements in the Mergins' basement.

Last week, the third week of camp, I was counseling the junior high age group, which is definitely my favorite. We had so much fun, even though my poor little body was so worn down that I got a cold. One of my campers nearly died on the mountain scooters and I almost broke my shoulder slacklining, but it was a great week.

Walking the line...

Some of my girls from week three.

This week, I'm at home for my week off. It's great to see my family again, especially since my mom's birthday is today. I also got to spend the 4th with my family for the first time in 3 years, which was a lot of fun.

The staff members at camp this year are so awesome! There are very few people (such as myself), who have worked at Trout before. I was a little nervous about this at first, but it has turned out great! The staff members, and the counselors especially, have really bonded with each other. Weekends at Trout are tons of fun. Some of the activities so far have included a girls' movie night with funfetti cake, driving two hours to get to Chipotle, and seeing Transformers 2. We are still planning on a cliff-jumping trip and possibly another journey to Chipotle.

So that's been my summer so far! I also had a week of training at the beginning, in case you are wondering why my summer has only been three weeks long...it hasn't...it's been four. I head back up to Trout on Sunday morning, hopefully well-rested and refreshed. Even though a break is nice, I definitely miss Trout. This is my 13th summer being at Trout in some capacity, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

-Jojo