Wednesday, October 13, 2010

the social weekend

sorry we haven't updated for a while. now that, that's over; we had a stella weekend!

last week's show went really well. other than having a crazy 2 school day and having to rush a lot on that day it went great without anything eventful. (which is really good when every setup counts.

this past weekend we stayed at the same hotel as johnny and lacie vasquez, another camfel team! we were able to hang with them from friday to monday, it was a blast! we basically only did things... things that were awesome. we knitted at a knitting store called Why Knot Knit (which you will hear about later), shopped at a farmer's market, had a picnic with bread, cheese, salami, and FRESH kosher pickles, had a photo shoot, had a double date, went to michaels (craft store) way, way too many times, watched a movie, saw a lady gaga scarecrow, went to a space museum, played some card games, ate chinese, and we did a show together.

it was so amazing getting to spend time with johnny and lacie! they are such a down to earth couple that we really get along and have fun with. in fact i believe we will be spending next weekend with them!! it was a very busy weekend as you could probably tell, but it was actually very refreshing. getting to go out and about with another couple is a really neat experience that minda and i have never really had before. we both hope that this is a friendship that we will be able to develop for a very long time!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

schools, storms, and scarves

this week was almost uneventful, which we will never complain about. we had 6 schools this week:

1 on monday

2 on tuesday

2 on thursday

and

1 on friday

as you could probably tell we had wednesday off, which was our first day off during a work week in three weeks. it was great to have a day off and it really, really helped the the week go by quicker. it was great to have a day to rest and refresh ourselves.

unfortunately the hurricanes that are pounding the southern coast right now drove tons of rain into the area we were working in this week. on tuesday and thursday we had to unload and reload twice each day in the rain. it wasn't fun to say the least. we were soaked both days, and it made it hard for us to move around while we were setting up, i don't think jeans were ever supposed to be worn wet. so we spent a good amount of time those days wiping down our equipment, trying to make sure that we got all of the water off.

the storm on thursday, especially thursday night was very, very bad. so bad in fact that while on the way to our school on friday we had to sit in a pretty bad traffic jam that was caused by about a quarter mile of flooding on the road. we decided to drive through it which most big vehicles were doing. we did not realize how bad it really was until we were about halfway through it. the water at the highest point was about 3 feet deep, and the waves from other vehicles were hitting our windows. it was extremely frightening, seeing that we weren't in a boat. anyways we prayed that God would take care of us and the drivers around us, and here we are, safe and sound, also our van was completely dry inside, definitely a God thing.

we were a little late to the school on friday, but they had a great big stage so it was an easy set-up.

so if you haven't heard we started a new hobby about a month ago. we have a lot of down time with our job, especially during our presentation, so we took up knitting. it is pretty relaxing and we really enjoy doing it and trying new patterns. we are even more excited now because very soon we are going to start selling them, to you! we are unsure how we are going to advertise them, possibly through albums on facebook, or how much we will sell them for; we will probably ask a base price to cover materials and shipping and ask for a love offering for anything over that price.

so minda and i have started our knitting company: Barely Attractive Apparel currently we are only offering scarves, but hats, gloves, and blankets may be available in the future. if you would like to seriously request a scarf in a certain color, pattern, material, or any other request you can follow this link: Barely Attractive Apparel!!!

we are currently working on an easier way for us to showcase our scarves so that it will be easier for you to see if you would like to order a scarf or something else..........from us. thanks for your patience and support!

Friday, September 24, 2010

and later on the six o clock news...

so this week went extremely fast, after last week's craziness, it should seem fast. we had one school a day except for thursday where we had two schools. the two school day was not much of a time issue seeing that they were only about five minutes apart; but they were both our hardest stage setups yet.

the first stage was too small to set up on so we set up on the floor in front of the stage. our second school wanted us to use the stage which barely fit one screen across it, so we had the two side screens coming off the stage onto the floor. this was a very complicated setup and if it hadn't of been for the students (camea, carolin, ben, and isaac) we wouldn't of been able to setup on time. they were all in eighth grade, and really fun, shy-at-first students. they were eager to help and very good at following instructions.

the second school was also exciting because there was a fight between two students. and when i say fight i mean both stranding up on their chairs thrashing at each other with closed fists. they were both jumped on by teachers and escorted out of the assembly. i guess my intro was pretty bad....just kidding! neither of the students were hurt, and the situation was dissolved very quickly. this incident happened right before the start of the assembly, so minda and i gave a pretty awesome intro and conclusion touching on how it takes courage to say "no" to yourself; like starting rumors, getting in fights, ect. and how participating in those activities actually makes you a weaker person.

BUT, the most exciting part of our week was that we were on the news!! so we were at norristown high school, which had the biggest stage ever! it was amazing, like heaven! it also had a giant orchestra pit which was great because our projectors were able to sit inside of it, out of harms way. the school had around 2000 students and they apparently have their own in-school news channel, which also airs on local channels. we were interviewed by two students after our second show. they asked us questions about the presentation and what our job is like. it was a fun interview that we both really actually enjoyed!

Friday, September 17, 2010

weekend with tyra

so it is the weekend, finally! it has been a very, very long week full of 2 school days, in all we have presented the show 18 times! we are extremely tired and we are super pumped to get a couple days to kick back and rest our bodies and minds.

the other day was a very stressful day for us, we had two schools, which were very close in scheduling. the first school's multi-purpose room's stage was extremely small and we couldn't fit our screens on the stage, so we had to reconfigure the seating to fit the screens on the floor. on top of that we started over half an hour behind schedule which meant that we ended up being half an hour late to our next venue.

at that next venue we could not get the line up exactly right because we had to set up our projectors in the rows of seats and how the seats were made it was truly difficult to line up our projectors. so it ended up being slightly off. now when i say slightly off i mean it was pretty bad, but the thing is, is that no one but minda and i could see the difference. we were even thanked by our contact for making the screens look so good, we almost started laughing.

at the end of the day even though we were both basically at our breaking point, we were able to agree to put the day behind us, and we were both able to laugh at our ridiculous day.

today we had what was supposed to be our "stressful day" because we had a super tight drive in between our two schools. the first school decided to begin their second show early which gave us the extra time to arrived at our next school 3 minutes ahead of schedule. both the set ups went very well, and at the second school we had the entire stage crew to help us set up and tear down. it was awesome. btw we had to set up our projectors in the seating at both shows and the line ups were killer!

at the end of our crazy week we (Minda) decided to finish it by watching an entire season of America's next top model.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

the six show school

yesterday (monday) was a long day to say the least. we were in a middle school in northern maryland, our first show started at 9:30, and we had shows all day until 3:30 in the afternoon. i think our boss andrew is mad at us, because i can think of no better way to torture and turn someone's braon to mush faster than scheduling them to watch the same 40 minute presentation 6 times in a row. in all seriousness, by the end we were extremely loopy and exhausted, but we love andrew and are just poking fun at him. the teachers and principal were very accommodating and really very nice to us. crazy day. now for the rest of the week we have 2 schools every day, it should be an experience for sure.

Monday, September 13, 2010

philly

so we went to Philadelphia on our day off, a couple days ago. it was pretty cool. we had a blast trying to find parking (sarcasm), but driving around the city was really fun. the buildings were old and had such character and 1depth to them. it was definitely an unexpected surprise as we were perusing all of the tiny unusable compact sized spots on the side of the street.

one of our must sees in philly was of course the liberty bell! in case you forgot the importance of the liberty bell check it out here!! so i prepared myself to be completely disappointed by the liberty bell, but honestly, it was pretty impressive! it was actually much larger than i though it was going to be. they were still in process of building onto the already new building that the bell resides in, so it was a little messy, but the information that they had to read and see leading up to the bell was informative and interesting as well.


our next stop was one that may interest a wider array of readers, we went for food! so we were told by our friends that we had to go to geno's for a real classic philly cheese steak, but i remembered watching a food network special in which i learned that pat's king of steaks, across the street was actually built before geno's. also geno's had lights and crazy signs and such, which was just obnoxious and lame. so we chose pat's, a small humble building, drawing people near with a small sign that held the name of their restaurant; any place that doesn't have to tell you how good they are, are alright in my book.


they cheese steaks were amazing, i mean, seriously, they were so good, a tad expensive, but so worth it! i feel like i might of broken my comma button on my keyboard.......o well.


one of the downsides of going to get a philly cheese steaks was that we had to walk around half an hour to get there. this meant that we had to walk all the way back, the problem other than having to walk on full stomachs was that we were a couple minutes late to repay on our parking meter. apparently the meter gods (it is just a joke) were not on our side, and we had received a parking ticket, dang it.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

our colorful day of rock and roll

today (Wednesday) was a free day for us. so before we left Easton, Pa to go to Horsham, Pa; we had to stop by the crayola crayon factory, which we learned today supplies 90% of the world's crayola brand crayons! before we entered the factory, we had to check out the biggest crayola store in the world that is also home to the world largest crayon! impractical, but still pretty cool!

yep it's blue

after making a purchase at one of the coolest, most colorful stores in the world, we  headed over to the factory for a tour! it was pretty fun, and we learned an awesome tip about crayola markers! so what is the worst thing that could befall a marker? a cap left off overnight, and a dry useless marker, right? well don't fret and don't toss your marker just yet.
 the tip was:
  1. dip the dry tip of your marker in warm water for 30 seconds 
  2. put the cap back on
  3. let sit overnight
  4. your dry dead marker will be reborn!!
anyways, it was really fun to see how crayons and markers are made. i even answered a trivia question and received some model magic as a prize! all right!

after our tour was over, we headed over to the original "School of Rock", after we got a tip from Johnny Vazquez, another tech from Camfel!


it was a pretty cool experience, just fun  getting a chance to see it in person!

on the move, very fast and very tired

so after spending over a week in pittsburgh, it is time to move on. we traveled from our hotel to Easton, PA, we will be there for two nights and then we will move onto Horsham, PA. after this week we will have a very crazy week. we will be traveling to and from Maryland, hopping back and forth over the border.

our first day of the week we will have six shows at one school, from then on we have two schools a day for the rest of the week, the majority of those schools have two shows booked as well. so in all next week on our five work days we will have eighteen shows! whew, please be praying for us as we prepare for next week!

Monday, September 6, 2010

the day of two schools

wow this past friday was intense. we had two schools this day, fortunately they were about 10 minutes apart, but we still had two schools in one day......wooooh tiring!

both the schools we had a show at that day were middle schools and we had students help us at each school. the first school we arrived at had a large stage, but a short ceiling and lights. so we had to set up farther back on the stage. it was a little irritating because it was extremely hard to maneuver our screens with the ceiling being so low. we had to bring them forward and back a few different times trying to find a spot where all three screens could fit together. we finished that setup on time with no serious problems.

our next show was to start at 2:00 and it was a little bit more stressful. when we arrived we were told that the auditorium that we would be setting up on would be in use until 1:00. on top of that, we were also told that there was going to be a fire drill happening at 1:27, in which we HAD to participate in. this meant that we truly only had around 25  minutes to set-up everything. luckily the stage was ENORMOUS! so while there was a presentation happening on the front of the stage we were able to set up our screens back stage. we also set up our projector tables and speaker stands. we basically had everything prepped to set up, but we didn't have anything set up.

the guys that helped us were a HUGE help! minda took care of the projectors while the six 8th grade guys helped me get the screens set up and worked on running cords for the speakers. it was a mad dash to get everything ready in time. we were doing our sound check when the fire alarm went off. having everything prepped definetly helped us, but we did our set up pretty much in under 25 minutes. needless to say we were a little exhausted after this set up.

don't forget to check out our map to see where we have traveled so far!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

PackRat anyone?

so, during training another married another married team (mike and kelsey domeny) introduced us to a game called "PackRat". it is a super fun, original card game in which you horde and sell items individually and in collections! the really neat part about this game is that it was completely created by the Domenys! so if you are looking for an easy to learn game that is addictive and fun, support the Domenys and buy their game!


PackRat is a game for the entire family! Collect, sell, and horde widgets, what-zits, doo-dads, and even doo-moms! Hold onto as much as you can, but be sure to sell when the deal is right!
In what other game can you store Mama's Favorite Who-Zit in a Bathtub? Or Grandpa's Doo-Hickey in the Kitchen Sink? Just hope it's not a Fancy Imitation!
PackRat’s play time can be customized to any duration you choose, and it can easily accommodate 2-8 players.

a night of three of our favorite things!

  1. Pittsburgh Steelers/Football
  2. Each Other
  3. Heinz Ketchup
 don't judge us.

on thursday night minda and i had the unique opportunity to see a pittsburgh steelers game live! it was a blast and minda was pretty much like a kid in a candy shop that was going out of business and having a liquidation sale.


being that it was a pre-season game, we found great seats online for less than half price! we were sitting dead center, lowest level, steeler's sideline, only 26 seats from the front. minda was able to see the facial expressions of "her boys", she was elated to say the least.


we were also sitting right behind some high school guys that were very into supporting their home team! they also helped lead some great cheers!


the game was against the carolina panthers. apparently they did not bring their a-game as the steelers pretty much were running circles around them! it was the icing on the cake to have them win by a landslide on the game we attended! we also took some great pictures after the game. remember you can click the pictures to see a bigger version of them!


at the end of the day we had a wonderful time! it was a perfect date.

chillin in pittsburgh

we have been in pittsburgh for the past week now and it has been a really fun time for Minda and I. we had the opportunity last weekend to hang out with another camfel team, Johnny and Lacie Vasquez! we just hung out around the city and ate some food with them; to end the night the wonderful couple invited us over to their hotel to play some games. it is interesting when you spend all your time on the road and in hotels how a simple hotel lobby now becomes your living room and entertainment area. so we spent a couple of hours in their "living room" playing "pass the pigs", which if you have never played, definitely need to try! let's just say Minda has the magic touch of the pigs.

the next morning (sunday), we went to The Hot Metal Bridge Church, a cool church with a great sense of community. They held an extremely laid back service outside in the sunshine, it was a great way to spend a sunday morning. i am always amazed when i visit other churches, especially when traveling, about how amazing being a Christian truly is. we literally have family from city to city, state to state, country to country. it is such cool blessing to take part in playing a role in the body of Christ.

ok, onto "business":

our first show of the week went swimmingly! it was a super fast set-up with no technical problems, BUT there were some other issues.....

first, it was an 8:00 show, which means we had to arrive at 6:00am....eww, on top of that our hotel was about 45 minutes away from our school, double eww. so we arrived and of course no one was at the school. we waited about 30 minutes for the school janitor and secretary to arrive, they did, and they were as sweet and helpful as can be.

second, right before the students started filing in, the ENTIRE cheer leading squad came in and started doing their cheers over all of our cords. this could possibly lead to a student tripping and hurting themselves, possibly unplugging our equipment, or pulling our equipment over. we quickly jumped into action and added and extra layer of tape to hold down our cords more securely.

third, after about the first 100 students had found their seats, music started pumping from the schools speakers and around 10 huge beach balls were thrown into the crowd of middle schoolers. i would normally be a huge advocate of what just unfolded before us, but we have 3 very delicate, very, very expensive projectors that are set up on stands in the first and second rows! once again minda and i jumped into action and hurdled 2 rows of auditorium seating to bat away countless attacks of beach balls to our projectors. it was stressful to say the least.

in our next update you will get to hear about Minda's dream come true in getting to see a Pittsburgh Steelers game live at Heinz Field!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

few days back

so....it has been a few days since our last post. we arrived in missouri safe and sound. the hotel was pretty aggravating because the first room they gave us reeked of cigarettes, the second room that we received was also rented out to 3 or 4 crickets. which promptly kept us up at midnight and also at five in the morning.

we left the hotel the next morning and made the drive to our friends, Jon and Maggie Hunter's house in Oxford, Ohio. We stayed at their house for the next three nights. it was an awesome time of fellowship with them. we were able to cook and eat together, and just have some great times sharing stories and playing the game "ticket to ride".

while we were in oxford, minda's family drove a few hours down to see us. it was really great getting to see them all again, and just have a day where we could hang out and catch up. i'm sure minda might blog about that day so i will skip over it.

our show that friday went very, very well. their were about 900 students in attendance and their reaction to the video got minda and i very excited about what we are doing right now, and just gave us assurance that we are where we are for a reason.

we are currently in Pittsburgh, pa. i will update about our weekend tomorrow and let you all know about our gallivanting in the home of the steelers, pirates, and penguins.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Si(y)dney, not just the capital of Australia; and Potter, not just an underachiever...

we just finished with the first show of our tour, and it went extremely well and smooth; but before we talk about that let's rewind time about 24 hours.

we arrived in Sidney, Nebraska (which is also the birthplace of the first Cabelas) where our hotel is located. we were staying about half and hour away from our school which is located in Potter, Nebraska.

when we were close to Sidney, i remembered that my friend from Moody Bible Institute, jenn sydow, (i was pretty sure at least) grew up in Sidney. after a quick call, i was assured i was correct. and thanks to jenn and her parent's hospitality, we ate dinner with her parents. jenn wasn't there because Moody's classes started today.

we had an amazing time with Bill and Karen Sydow! They made hamburgers for us and had an amazing variety of healthy fruit and veggie choices, choices that were extremely welcoming after eating fast food for 3 weeks! we spent a few hours with Karen and Bill, and had some amazing fellowship with them. we were extremely encouraged by them and they prayed for us and our show for the following day. we were even sent away with "adventures in odyssey" cds and cds of Bill's preaching series on Genesis, to keep us entertained on the road! they were an amazing blessing from the Lord, they truly love Him and are walking in His path.

the next morning (today, monday, august 23) we woke up early, packed up our van and headed off to Potter, Nebraska to have our first show. we read in the local paper before we left that the school has a new principal, who was also our contact Phil Hoyt. The school was extremely welcoming and we set up our show fairly quickly. after our show was aver we had five freshmen guys help us tear down. it was a fun time to chat and find out a little about their lives.

after we packed up everything, we left for St. Joseph, Missouri. which is around 9 hours away from where we are. minda and i have about 3 hours of traveling left, so if you are reading this, please pray for safe travels!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

driving

thankfully due to the power of technology, i am able to blog while minda drives through utah! we started this morning in las vegas, nevada, since we have been through the northeastern tip of arizona, and we are partway through utah as i type.

firstly let me say that utah is waaaaay prettier than eastern california, nevada, and northeastern arizona combined!

secondly let me say that utah is waaaay weirder than eastern california, nevada, and northeastern arizona combined! we stopped and ate at a del taco a few miles back and we are pretty sure we just encountered our first live case of mormon polygamy, so weird and so gross.

anyways, utah is gorgeous and it is so comforting seeing green grass, albeit prairie grass, grass none the less. and there is even a cloud or two to keep us company, we never realized how much we liked clouds until there weren't any anymore!

so far we have driven 214 miles and have 547 more to go until we can call it a day in denver. i am partly excited because it is home of chipotle! yay!


hope everyone is having a good day, please keep our travels in your prayers!

Friday, August 20, 2010

where we go!

so i know this is the moment we have been waiting for, so i am sure to some extent it is the question you all have, where will we be going?! well we just found out that for the first semester we will be traveling......drum roll please..............the East Coast.

go figure we just came from there so we might as well travel back that way!

our first show actually being on the road is on monday, in Potter, Nebraska! we will be leaving in the next few hours to Las Vegas where we will be spending the night. on saturday we will make part of the journey to Nebraska, and on sunday we will arrive in the town that our show will be in.

below is a map showing where we will be traveling tonight!


View away we go in a larger map

our first show!


although we are not finished with training, we have the unique opportunity to have a test run in a real school!! below are pictures of our assembly that will give you an idea of what we are training to do out here in california! basically we set up everything that you see in the gym. 

here are our screens! they are each 10x15 feet, so pretty big! they come in ten different pieces which we all have to assemble.


here is our pretty cords that we carefully taped to the floor so they were nice and neat!


here are our projectors which make the whole show possible! 


we had two showings of our assembly, in which 900 students were able to participate! so cool to be able to impact so many students at once! the new video this year is called Dare To Move. it is a show that encourages students to overcome the obstacles that have been put in their paths and step out of their comfort zones to dare to move to make right decisions for themselves and for others! we are blessed to be able to be a part of this ministry that impacts so many students!

our show went off without a hitch and the students seemed to respond extremely well to the video!!

be sure to check out our next post with news of where we will be traveling!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

hollywood, not all it's cracked up to be...

ok so on sunday, our day off, we decided to go to hollywood and see a movie.


but, before we left we (minda, steve, ashley, and brianna) went to the apple store close by where we are staying. the reason we stopped by was because brianna (another tech) bought an iphone, it was broken, so we went to get it fixed. short story apple is awesome and with no questions asked gave her a new phone to replace the broken one. cool deal.

anyways, so we got back to base camp and then left for hollywood. only bri, minda, and i ended up going in our van, but it was such an amazing time talking with bri and learning about her life and sharing ours with her. she is truly a gifted girl with an amazing heart for God; and she has a Minnesotan accent which is just awesome.

after encountering about a half hour of famous californian traffic, we arrived in downtown hollywood. parking garages were plenty, but very expensive. after a few parking tips from our local friends that are also techs, we got ourselves parked!

hollywood was pretty busy, and honestly it is about one block long and packed with people. we stopped by the most famous spot in hollywood, grauman's chinese theater. we hung out in front of the theater and took some pictures of the cement blocks there signed by famous celebrities!

minda got her picture taken with harrison ford


and i got my picture with morgan freeman




we also took a picture of the hollywood sign, as a side note you may click on any picture to open a higher resolution picture!  


moral of the story, we didn't get the chance to watch a movie :(.........o well!

btw, be on the look for a blog post very soon regarding our first show! it went very good btw!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

training, training, training

so this week has been a very, very busy week for us to say the very, very least. we begin around 6:30 in the morning and end around 5:00 in the afternoon. our days are spent rotating between four different sessions, each focused on a different part of the camfel job. the four parts are: setting up the different frames to accommodate different stages and ceilings, A/V set up and trouble shooting, and two rotating sessions that focus on different things associated with eqiupment maintince. needless to say, every night we have both collapsed into bed, only to be harassed by our alarms early the next morning.

two days ago (friday), minda had a really, really bad migraine that  kept her in bed all day trying to sleep it off. so i spent the day alone without her as a partner to keep me company :(. but it was ok because she woke up the next day feeling right as rain and ready to go!

yesterday (saturday) was a "half day", but it felt a little longer than that. much to our relief it was more of a laid back non physical day. we are getting excited and also a little nervous because andrew, the team manager, let us know yesterday that we will be doing our first show tomorrow (monday). we won't start our official tour until later this week, but tomorrow is our first show. in fact, it will be the first official showing of this year's new show. the even cooler thing is, is that the entire camfel team will be coming to see the show at the high school!

Team Camfel!
we will hopefully update tomorrow and let everyone know how our show went! pray that:
  • God will work through us to further His kingdom.
  • He would direct us in our setup
  • that everything would run smoothly 
  • God would speak through us to students we come into contact with

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

basic training

our first day of training has come and gone, and we now completely understand the definition of the term “information overload”. we had the opportunity to see all of the equipment, but did not have any hands on training which was tough for arminda and me, both. so it was extremely hard trying to remember how to set up all of our equipment without getting to get our hands on it.

we were split up into different group and we are of course in the married peoples group. the other married couples are close to our age and it has been really cool getting to know them and learn with them. one married couple that we have become really good friends with is ashley and steve barnwell. they are a really cool couple who just got married in january and have a love and passion for God, His gospel and students.

here is a picture of us after a long day of training!! miss you all!

it has been a long, long day, but it was pretty cool because minda and i both (thankfully haha) passed our driving test and had the opportunity to go to the west coast famous in -n- out! mmmm tasty burgers. i wasn't the biggest fan of their fries, but we were told that we had to get them "animal style"; which apparently is their fries with melted cheese, bacon bits, thousand island dressing, and grilled onions on top. sounds pretty crazy good, so we are definitely going to have to make a trip back to check that out.

Monday, August 9, 2010

away we go!!

way we go I wrote this while on our first plane on our way to dallas/fort worth airport. We were a little stressed this morning, because I set my alarm for 2:30 am and it never went off. Luckily mama j woke us up a little before 3:00 when we had to leave, no shower for a while :(, o well.
Our flight has been smooth so far and the flight attendants seem like they are having a good morning. It was hard to say goodbye to the Whitlock clan, it was pretty tough for minda jayne, but it was a great way to be sent off, with loving hugs and encouraging words. Minda is a little worried, because she had to check her guitar. Apparently you are unable to bring a guitar with a hard case on the plane with you, would have been nice if that was posted on the website. O well, we are rolling with the punches and going with the flow right now, preparing ourselves for a California mindset. We are both excited and seriously extremely nervous. Usually I am unhindered by stress until the last minute, and the last minute is upon us.

Minda took some pictures from the plane after we reached our cruising altitude. I love flying, it is super-surreal, it is just one of those things that seems normal, but if you think about it, you start feeling uncomfortable and fidgety. Ok random, but I find it extremely displeasing when I am trying to type out a blog post and the woman in front of me decides it is time to lay her chair back so I have to bend my arms in weird directions to type, grrrrr.

Anyways silas (minda’s youngest brother) hooked us up with some pretty sweet silly bandz that are in the shape of airplanes!! So COOL! We will rock these bandz til they fall off!

My arms are getting extremely uncomfortable so, at least until our next flight I am signing off!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

our flight to Cali!

here is an overview minda and my flight to California! feel free to click on icons and lines to discover comments we have made on them! you can also zoom in and out, have fun with our map. we will also be posting and constantly updating a different map that will record our journey through the States!



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send us Love!

while we may not have a permanent address for the next 10 months there are still ways to get things to us! while we are traveling we will receive mail once a week on friday. the mail will be sent to the school that we will be working at. if you would like to send us a letter, package, or some love you can address it:

attn: Andrew
Nicholas and Arminda Walborn
15709 Arrow Highway, Suite: 2
Irwindale, CA 91706

Saturday, July 31, 2010

t-minus 1 week and counting

this past month of july has flown by and Minda and I are both getting extremely nervous and excited about our new journey that is just about to begin! our last week in ohio is absolutely jam packed, meeting with friends and family.

this past saturday Minda worked her last day at the doughbox bakery, she is really sad to leave all her friends but so excited to start this new chapter in her life! friday morning her co-workers threw a going away party. they wrote encouraging notes, and made awesome homemade salsa (thanks Jules)! and Minda is very proud to say that she contributed to the party by making an egg bake dish!

today is Garrett's (my younger brother) graduation party, so we are excited to celebrate with him and send him off to continue his education at Ithaca College in upstate new york.

in other news, we are beginning the long hard process of deciding what to pack to bring with us, this is obviously an important task, seeing that the decisions we make now will have a profound effect on our next six months, let's hope we choose wisely! 

Monday, July 12, 2010

t-minus 4 Weeks and Counting

today marks four weeks until we leave for California. furthermore we only have three weeks of Church left at Christ Community Church which we are both really saddened about. we are both getting more and more excited, but we are also getting more and more disappointed about leaving our family and friends. BUT, we are not planning on becoming disconnected while we are gone. we are going to try our hardest to stay connected in a plethora of ways, really attempting to give you a variety of avenues to keep up with us in the way(s) you find easiest or most interesting. these are the ways we are staying connected:


  • our blog, duh right? if you would like to spread the word please post this link on your facebook!: http://nikandminda.blogspot.com/ we really would like as many people to know about and see this blog as possible. so please spread the word! also we LOVE comments, so please comment away either at the end of each post or on our facebook profiles!
  • Facebook updates of course! we would also appreciate your comments and encouragements on these, we LOVE your personal encouragements and love.
  • Twitter updates. if you are unfamiliar with twitter you can check it out at http://www.twitter.com/. it is basically a site completely dedicated to facebook style status updates. if you want to follow us or get our updates texted to your cell phone via text messaging our twitter name is nikandminda
  • UStream video blog. we will be broadcasting a video blog that you can watch live while we are recording or later at your convenience when you are free. during the live blog as many viewers as want are able to watch and chat with each other and us without signing up for any service. the link to follow to find the blog is: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nikandminda we will have listed blog times on the website and later on facebook and twitter.                                                                                            
we also just added a "like" button for facebook as you can see below, so please "like" each post you read and get the word out! there is also a small box with the facebook icon below that will share the link to facebook, so please share away!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

in the beginning...

Arminda and I have been married for twenty-six days now. twenty-six wonderful, crazy, exciting, and adventurous days. everyday that we are married brings us one day closer to beginning our new job together. we are going to be working for the company Camfel Productions, and in a nutshell our responsibilities are: to set up the equipment for and run school assemblies in public high schools all across America. the school assemblies are focused on encouraging students to be the best person that they can be, and reminding them that they are all special and unique. we begin our new job in august, august 8th to be exact. we will be leaving august 8th heading to ontario, california to begin 2 weeks of training, after the training we will begin our journey through the united states. we are unsure of exactly where we will be headed, but we will update you all as soon as we know. Arminda and I are so so pumped to keep all of you, our family and friends, in our lives and in the know of our current struggles and sucesses. we would both love for you to comment on our post and let us know how you are doing and what you think of our latest endevors.

Soooo right now here are some prayer requests and praises:
·        we bought our plane tickets (we leave august 8th!)
·        that the Lord will prepare us to work with the high school students we will soon encounter
·        that we would be wise with our finances
·        we are looking for a GPS and a Video Camera right now