30, flirty, thriving.

I am definitely NOT good about updating this site...
But, I wanted to update with some great pictures from my 30th birthday weekend!

It started out with my friends Jeanne and Joe flying in from Chicago to help me celebrate--and a day later, Tahir came into town!!

The HIGHLIGHT of my weekend (although overall, it was an incredible time), was that I went SKYDIVING over Monterey Bay!! It was AMAZING!! You can see the video footage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp63Q_bk98U

So skydiving, dinner in San Francisco with some beautiful friends, hanging out, and on Sunday, my church youth and some of the English ministry members threw me a SURPRISE birthday celebration at the park!

It's amazing to be filled with so much love and I rang in a new decade with overflowing love. For that, I am so grateful.

Enjoy the pics! They are totally random, but encompass my birthday weekend well.

Sweet moments with a 2-year old...

Tonight, I had the privilege of babysitting N and baby sister H while their parents finally had a night out together.

I put N to bed and it was one of the sweetest moments I've experienced in a long time. This girl is so so sweet... she requires a certain routine when you go to bed.

She loves to be talked to before she sleeps... she says, "Irene emo (Auntie Irene) talking"... so I talk about her day and what she did that day.... the whole time, she is holding my hand through the crib as she lays there and I have to also lay down on the ground too.

I could go into a lot of detail of what that entailed, but one of my favorite "talking" moments was when she asked me to talk about church. So, I told her about how God loves her and her mom and her dad and her sister... etc... and that God loves everyone! She then repeated that part, "God loves everyone!" Then I told her about how God created the world and the plants and the trees and the flowers...and as I was repeating that, when I would forget something, she would add it in--"God made plants and trees and flowers!" Melted my heart.

My favorite part was at the very end when she was ready for me to leave... she said, "Kido" which means "pray" and she folded her hands and we prayed together.

Then, she said, "Night night, emo... high five" (so I gave her a high five through the crib)... "fist pump" (which her dad taught her, so I gave her fist pump through the crib) and then she continued, 'saranghehyo!' which means, I love you! Melted me through and through.

Oh, of course it doesn't end there... as I'm walking out the door, she says, "bye bye emo, MUUUAH!" and she blew me a kiss.

I want to be mom so much, but I am so incredibly thankful that I get to share in a child's life now. Fulfills so much of that for me. :)

And it's April now... :)

Yeah, I am clearly not in the updating blog mode at all nowadays--life just gets in the way sometimes! Anyway, Happy Easter to everyone!! It was a busy but wonderful Lenten season and Holy Week--and Easter!

My cousin Tina came to visit, my friend Joann is going to come and visit soon... and I've just been working away. I did have a whirlwind trip to Louisville for a one day consultation--and mostly life has just been as usual!

So, I hope you enjoy the pics and here's also a quote that I read by Audrey Hepburn and absolutely loved...that I'm holding close for a while.

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."

Picture updates

Well, it's been a while. The easiest way to update a month of no updates is usually with pictures, so here goes!! :) It started with post-holiday church madness with a trip home to Utah. It was the first time home since my ordination in 2008, so it was time... although I didn't get to see the extended family at Christmas and New Years, it was good to see my parents and some friends in mid-January.

Then, I was off to the APCE Conference (Association of Presbyterian Christian Educator's) in Nashville, TN! Saw some good peeps there... along with a live performance by Amy Grant!


THEN, I came back and hit the ground running with more work... and happily, my brother Andy came up to Sacramento for a work conference. I drove up there to see him... I hadn't seen him since December 2008, so it was great to see him too.

Finally, my friends Mannam and Stephen had their second daughter!!! (Their oldest is Nahyun, the one I always post pics with)... Haena Haylie Lee was born on February 9th and she is BEAUTIFUL!!!




Hopefully it won't be so long until my next update!! Blessings everyone.

More hanboks...

I swear I serve the cutest kids ever...

Happy 2010!

새해 복 많이 받으세요!! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

More to come ... it's been super busy for me... but thought I would post two pics of me in my hanbok (Korean traditional dress) that I wore for last night's worship service and wish you all a blessed and wonderful new year!!