Affectionate Priya

Priya has become quite the affectionate little girl lately! She loves to wrap her arms around our necks or shoulders and give us a big squeeze. She usually tops it off with a sweet kiss on the cheek too. Ahhhh...what a fun and sweet stage!

It's moments like these that make up for the time when she broke a lamp over my head... ;) (yes, she actually did that yesterday!)

One Last Cousins Update

Work has kept me quite busy since we got back from Jon and Jenetta's place. But I've been meaning to add one last glimpse of our time with O & L. We drove back home on Tuesday and Priya has been chattering about the girls ever since! She has a cute interpretation of their names which I also can't post online, but they definitely made an impact on her!

Below, Jon and I enjoyed a walk with the girls.

Grandpa wows the girls with his domino skills.

O & L love to play dress up so they decided to get Priya in on the fun.

Priya uses O & L's doctor kit as a phone! :)

O & L get some love from Grammy & Grandpa.

We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the pool.

And got to spend a little time with friends from Jon & Jenetta's Home Group, including Nikki and Abby.

O & L let Grammy & I visit their beauty parlor.

L plays doctor with Mommy. Mommy only had a fever! Whew!

Priya enjoys some cold milk after a hot afternoon outside (it got up to over 100 in Escondido while we were there!).

Fun with cousins!

The fun continues...
O & L have been very involved in Priya's mealtimes. They are both very eager to help by holding her food and taking turns feeding her. They also sing to her to help her take her bites of food more willingly. It works like a charm! Thanks O & L!
Yesterday evening, Jenetta's mom, Joy, and her husband CJ stopped by for a visit. Joy works with preschoolers and is amazing with the girls! She helped them set up some fun games with rice and "goop" on the back patio and all three girls had a blast playing together.

I had a hard time getting videos of the girls without showing their faces. So these are brief, but it's a start at least! :)

Some funny tidbits from our time with O & L:

1. O is very fond of her dog Miranda. She cutely calls her "O'Wanda" or "Wanda".
2. Last night when Jenetta's mom and step-dad were getting ready to go, the girls were talking about their 2 sets of grandma's who were there: "Old Grandma" (Joy) and "New Grandma" (my mom, Sue). They were thankful she didn't refer to them as Old Grandma and Young Grandma!

Meeting O & L!

We have had a rather unexpected turn of events and Priya and I have found ourselves down in Escondido, CA visiting Jon & Jenetta and meeting O & L for the first time!! My parents had a trip planned to drive down here and it originally conflicted with our schedules, but once their dates were finalized we realized that it would be possible for at least Priya and I to join them. Unfortunately Ashish still has school and is madly studying for his finals, so he wasnn't able to join us. :(

We arrived yesterday around 4pm and were very warmly greeted by O & L who ran up to us and blessed us with big hugs. They took to Priya immediately and she returned the love, so the three of them had a wonderful time causing a tornado throughout the house (sorry J&J!). The girls are absolutely adorable and we loved them from the moment we me them! It's going to be quite the circus when the whole family gets together this summer and our niece Ella joins the group!

We are currently into day two and wrestling through the challenges of getting 3 over-stimulated girls to take proper naps, but from the sound of it now, all are sleeping peacefully.

Priya and I are staying at the home of my Aunt Barb & Uncle Harold (thank you for your incredible hospitality!) and are spending the days with J&J, O&L, and Grammy & Grandpa.

The photo above is of O & L helping feed Priya her breakfast this morning. I wish we could post better pics, but the other ones that were taken all show the girls' faces and until the adoption is final we can't post them.

Stay tuned for more fun to come!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Christian family!

We had a special day here in Redding. We attended Neighborhood Church's Easter service at the Redding Convention Center and then spent the afternoon celebrating with our Redding relatives at my parents' home.

Below Priya and Grandpa make their way into the Redding Convention Center.
Priya enjoyed some quality time with her Great Aunt Janis and her Great Uncle Ted during the service when she got too squirrely to sit in the service. Thanks for your help Janis & Ted! :)
Outside of the Convention Center are several fountains. We took photos there last year so we thought we'd try it out again this year. Priya was FAR more interested in jumping in and taking a "bath" as she excitedly exclaimed again and again.


Her 2nd cousin Noah had a little fun with our little monkey.
And then Noah has a little fun with his own little man - Tate.
Tate has grown so much since we last saw him at Christmas time! He is such a great baby! He smiled all the way through out time together! What a cutie!
After the aunts, uncles & cousins made their way back home, we ventured outside for a little fun in the sun. Priya enjoyed some quality time with Grammy and went to town pulling leaves off the bushes, throwing pieces of bark, and picking up rocks and throwing them all over the driveway. Oh what fun! :)

Easter Egg Drop at Simpson!

This morning Ashish took Priya to a special Easter Egg Drop here on Simpson's campus. A local church sponsored the event and brought in a helicopter to drop off 15,000 candy filled, plastic Easter eggs!

A glimpse of my life as an RD

The 08-09 school year is about to come to a close. It's always amazing to me to see how quickly the year flies by! This year is no exception! I am on the verge of completing my 9th year as a Resident Director! It's hard to believe that I've been here that long! Our plan is to stay as long as the Lord keeps us here, taking it one year at a time. We will be here for at least one more year and will continue to seek God's direction for the future.

Next year at Simpson will look a bit different, holding a whole new host of challenges and opportunities. We are shifting our program and changing it to meet the needs of only having 3 professional staff running the program in Residence Life. I will be taking on a new title (Residence Life Coordinator) and assuming new duties (primarily heading up the daunting area of discipline - among other things). We will also have Student RD's next year (changing their titles from Lead RA's)! It's definitely going to look a little different around here.

I have mixed feelings about the changes, but am trying to make the best of what I anticipate will be a challenging year. I'm sure that I will learn a great deal and will gain additional skills that will be helpful down the road. I like the idea of a new challenge and I'm hoping and praying for the best.

Below is a photo of this year's RA and Lead RA team. This year we more than doubled the number of students that we hire for these roles. We had 5 Lead RA's (an entirely new position this year) and 6 RA's per dorm (we previously had only 3). So we jumped from having 15 -18 RA's to having 35 students impacting our campus and influencing their floors. It was a learning curve, but in the end was a great success, in my opinion. :) It's going to be hard to say goodbye to this group!We have hired our team for next year and have concluded the spring training these student leaders. Below we are gathered at our President's home (Dr. McKinney) for a New RA Reception. We anticipate great things from this group of students and are exited to work with them next year.

Stirring Mom's Group - Easter Egg Hunt

This morning the Stirring Mom's Group visited a beautiful park that I didn't even know existed - Rivercrest Park. We had a great time watching the kids enjoy themselves as they ran around and played and got to do some catching up with the other moms in the group. We also had an Easter Egg Hunt which was a blast for the kids! Priya seemed to get the hang of it pretty well and walked away proudly with 4 eggs. Way to go Priya! :) Thanks Stirring Mom's for a wonderful morning out!