MONDAY MUSIC SHARE: Jon Foreman’s “Your Love is Strong” from his Spring album


Happy Monday morning.  I’m sitting in a cafe determined to get a LOT of work done but realized that I didn’t have anything ready for Monday Music Share.  So I pulled out a goodie … 

This is from Jon Foreman’s EP series.  He branched out from Switchfoot here and there with a few solo albums and also partnered up with Nickel Creek’s Sean Watson to produce Fiction Family.  But his Season EPs are my favorite.  

Anyways, this song in particular is one of my favorites.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  And I just learned something new.  This song is a sequel to a song on the Switchfoot “Oh Gravity!” album.  I did not know that.  Makes me want to read the lyrics back to back.

Maybe I will.  After I get through all this work.  Yes.


5 Things Tuesday

Hi friends.  Sorry it took me awhile to get this up … it’s been a busy weekend!  I’m just now getting caught up.  Anyways, here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on in life:

1  MY DAD TURNED 50 - This weekend was my dad’s 50th birthday, and since it’s pretty much a milestone celebration I flew out.  It was fun surprising him along with all his friends at one of his favorite pizza places.

I love the fact that he’s wearing this birthday hat.  He’d only wear it after a few rounds of alcohol (that’s what is in the pail).  I’m just happy to get a picture - he looks like a wizard!!

2  APPARENTLY I ONLY READ WHEN I TRAVEL - Being able to fly home for birthdays is awesome.  I kind of have this routine of buying a Lucky Magazine and some candy to pass the time when traveling.  And I usually knock out a book.  I mean really - what am I supposed to be doing during the flight?

Anyways, I was able to get through Dave Ramsey’s “Entreleadership” and start Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” A little bit of business, a little bit of a humorous memoir.  To balance things out.  Obviously.

I don’t know about you, but I can totally hear their voices as I read.  Maybe it’s because I listen to Dave’s podcast and watch The Office a lot.  It’s kind of weird, but cool.  Anyways, I’m almost done with the Mindy Kaling book, and I have a new one on deck.  I forgot how much I actually like reading.  Weird.

3  MOLLS IS FOLLOWING ME ON INSTAGRAM - So craziest thing … I almost sort of freaked out.  Molly McAleer is following me on Instagram.  No big deal, right?  She’s just 1/3 of Hello Giggles, a famous blogger here in LA, and a writer for Two Broke Girls.

It’s just weird to me because she has this huge following, but she is following me on Instagram.  So weird.  But kind of awesome.  She’s like BFF with Zooey Deschanel - who stars in one of my favorite movies (500 days) and new favorite TV show (New Girl).  It’s just crazy.  Small world.

4  SKYPE DATES WITH AWESOME PEOPLE - Last week I had the opportunity to Skype with some of my favorite people in the world - Ryan and Luci!  We talked about life, music, career, family (they have two kiddos who are beautiful and growing way too fast) … I’m so happy to have talked to them.  Luci might come out to visit since her brother is opening up a club here.  That would be awesome.  We get a little crazy sometimes when we get together.  

Anyways - I like them a lot.  Can’t wait til I see them again some day.

5  750 WORDS, NEW MUSIC, AND SOME NIGHTS - I signed up for a writing challenge in February to write 750 words each morning and I won!  Apparently it’s supposed to be really good to wake up each morning and free write three pages.  It helps you unload your brain and get the day started.  They took that concept and changed it to 750 words.  So each morning through the month of February I wrote.  About everything.  And left the typos.  Sometimes I made no sense, but I wrote.

And since I finished my challenge, I allowed myself to buy some music on iTunes.  Boom.  Winning.  And my favorite of the music picks is by far “Some Nights” by fun.  It is so happy and peppy and sort of musical-like but with a few peppered in F-Bombs.  But I still like it.  


5 Things Tuesday

Sorry for the late start … I honestly was reading Hunger Games and was caught up.  And then I was like “goodness, I haven’t even written my post yet for today.”  So here goes it.

1  INSTAGRAM IS AVAILABLE FOR ANDROIDS NOW - After much waited anticipation, the best photography app is now available for Androids. As much as I love exclusivity, I’m glad the rest of the world can join us in the Instagram world.  

I was wondering why I was getting a million new notices of people joining. Now it all makes sense.  

2  A NOMAD OF SORTS - Because of a slight housing hiccup, I’m staying with my aunt in Temecula. It’ll only be for a month, and I’ll be back in west LA at the very end of April.  It’s kind of nice because I get to spend time with my cousins and their little ones.  

But I’m still a nomad because I’ll actually be spending a week in San Diego with one of them. And then a few days in Orange County for a conference later in the month. So yeah, it’s busy. But I’m rolling with it.

3  BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR THE FIRST TIME - So I was channel surfing with my cousin on Saturday and one of the greatest movies of all time started: Back to the Future.  

Little tidbit about my family back home: we watch the Back to the Future trilogy on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, we’ll most likely stop to watch it and quote as we go along. It’s basically a Chang family tradition.

To my absolute shock, my 15-year-old cousin states “I don’t watch old movies - I’ve never seen this before.” But I made him watch it with me. Ridiculousness. So I sent this text message to my youngest brother - his reply is priceless.

4  WHILE IN SAN DIEGO I’LL BE HANGING OUT WITH AWESOME PEOPLE - Obviously a week with my cousin, Ciara, will be amazing. But I will also have the pleasure of hanging out with some old Teen Mania friends. I’m really excited to catch up with them and find out about all the good things happening in life.

Excited to see these faces:

5  ON A SERIOUS NOTE, MY GRANDMOTHER PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY- I’ve been kind of in a quiet spirit for a day or so because of this. Because this is actually a grandmother that I grew up with, who took care of me, who walked me to school when I was little. 

I really wish I knew how to speak filipino in order to talk to her fully. I would love to hear stories of my mom when she was little. Language barriers suck. I really wish she taught me how to make Lumpia.

She’s been sick for awhile, but I’m so glad we had a big birthday blowout in early January. Everyone was there and we celebrated her. We love you, Lola.

Seriously … where did all these cousins come from?



5 Things Tuesday

Hello friends.  I’ve kind of had an awesome week last week, so here’s a quick recap:

1  CATALYST CONFERENCE SCORE - So awhile ago I put in an inquiry about the Catalyst Conference that’s happening here mid April. And at the kind courtesy of their team, I got a phone call and realized that the person on the other end went to ORU.  Small world!

We got to talking.  I told her how I just moved to LA and was still figuring out how life was going to come together here … and she hit me back telling me about the Catalyst Scholarship.  She knew that things would be tight for me with the transition, so I filled out the app and sent it back.  A few days later I got a phone call telling me that I won the scholarship!  

I’m really excited! Some of my favorite speakers and worship leaders will be there. 

Including:  Donald Miller, Jon Acuff, Britt Merrick, Gungor, Jeremy Cowart, Carlos Whittaker … and more.  It’s like a $300 value that I’m getting for free.  What a blessing! 

2  THE SURPRISES DIDN’T STOP THERE - The most random thing happened on Saturday. I met up my new small group friends at a park and spent the rest of the afternoon with a one of them, Lauren.  She and I went to Venice and got some Hawaiian shaved ice (delish!) and on the way back we got to talking about my love for baking. 

And then she was like “OMG - I have a Kitchenaid Mixer!  You can use it … it’s just sitting at my parent’s house not doing anything!”  So I randomly have a pretty fairly new beautiful white Kitchenaid Mixer in my possession. Totally unexpected blessing!

I feel like I’m being reunited or something.  I sold mine when I left Florida two years ago.  And I’ve been sad ever since.  But now I have this one.  On loan of course, but still! I’m going to bake!  Who wants a cookie package??

3  MOST RANDOM BUT AWESOME DAY - On Thursday I hung out with my cousin, Mike as we basically winged the entire day but it turn out to be amazing.  

We first went to the Getty Museum and checked out all the exhibits (the photography one was my favorite).  Had my first food truck experience (grilled cheese + tater tots = yum!).  Hollywood - including Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Walk of Fame, and Kodak Theater. Beverly Hills to see the current roommate at work. Home to rest a bit.  Then Hard Rock Cafe to see the old roommate play live (which was awesome).  

Good times!

4   SO I DECIDED WHAT TO GIVE UP FOR LENT - I’m not reading blogs for 40 days. That’s right. I’m giving up my Google Reader. It’s unreal how much time I spend reading about other people’s lives and not really engaging in what’s going on around me. 

I’m only a few days in, but it’s freed up a lot of time. I’ve been reading both my Bible and one of my books, Entreleadership. Meeting new people in the area and getting to know them. (I sort of jumped into a small group right away and met the coolest/nicest people ever.) 

I’m told that LA can easily eat you alive if you’re not careful. I’m kind of super thankful to run into nice people right off the bat. It sure does help with the transition!

5  VIDEOS - I didn’t know which one to share … Dubstep Hipster Cat or KevJumba.  Let’s go with both.  Enjoy!

ANYWAYS - HAVE A GOOD WEEK!  HAPPY RUBY TUESDAY TO ALL Y’ALL :)

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