Disneyland with the family (few days after the last post) was a blast! We had a few mis-haps. Very first ride we went on (Indiana Jones), broke down not once, not twice, but THREE times while we were on it. They finally came to the rescue and let us walk the 2nd half the ride out and gave us fast passes for later. Also both of the boys managed to get a little too much sun exposure and I got a bloody nose. So it was an interesting (and memorable) day :)
Here's the 4 of us doing super hero poses.
Of course we got the tourist-y shot!
We were technically there for Matthew and Nichelle celebrating both of their birthdays, graduations, and their anniversary and I was celebrating an early birthday. They found these awesome Disney graduation caps!
My husband being VERY silly!
About 2 weeks later, we were BACK in Bakersfield. This time it was for one of my friend's wedding receptions. Brandon Fontes was actually the one who performed my baptism so I definitely had to be there!
Mr. & Mrs. Brandon Fontes- June 5th, 2010!
Me and Brandon :)
After all this traveling, Chris finally buckled down and took the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) for grad school and did VERY well. He scored a 690 Verbal, 650 Math, and 4.5/6 on writing sample for a combined 1340! Anything over 1200 is considered above average :) He has since been e-mailing some of the professors he is most interested in working with. The two most interested are at Stanford and Oregon State University. At this point, he is getting some volunteer experience through a local Public Anthropology non-profit by doing some transcription work for their projects and we are both volunteering with Arte Americas which does a lot of Hispanic culture in downtown Fresno and has a art gallery.
While Chris was busily de-stressing from having just taken the GRE, I had 2 rehearsals and a concert where I got to perform with Star Wars in Concert :D The concert was on June 17th and it was an AMAZING experience. I was part of the choir which comprised of 60 members from past and current members of the Fresno State Concert Choir. We sang in Duel of the Fates and Battle of Heroes in the first half and then sat in the audience and got to watch the 2nd half. Before the show started, Anthony Daniels (voice of C-3P0) came backstage and gave us a pep talk. Very personable guy! The way he did the show was they went in order of story explaining as they went with having parts of the movie on the huge display while the orchestra played. Between each of the songs Anthony Daniels would say a tid-bit about what had happened and what was going on at that point. Here's some photos and a video from the event. I have another video that was the finale with a medley of the music, but it keeps popping up an error message (I'm assuming because it's over 6 minutes long!).
Choir backstage pass
Me with the Darth Vader
Entire choir with Anthony Daniels
These are members of my sorority and the linked fraternity that sang in Star Wars!
The AMAZING orchestra director!
Leia
Encore Performance- Imperial March
For one of our outings at the end of June, we went to a friend's BBQ at Woodward Park. Since it's one of those places you have to pay for parking, we decided to make it a complete date by heading over to the Japanese Garden after it was done. Very cool little place and there was a lot of baby animals at the time since one of the peacock hens had chicks and there was a mama duck who had chicks. The entire time we were there, there was one male peacock who was desperately trying to get the attention of the females by having all his feathers displayed and shaking his groove thang.
Hawk hanging out in Woodward Park
Baby duckies!
Looking over the Lake
Mama duck making sure to not trust us filthy baby stealing humans!
Baby peacocks following their mom!
Male peacock
Shaking his tail feathers :P
July has been mostly unevenful. The highlights are that Chris and I have both been hired back on at Kennel Bookstore for the beginning of semester rush. Chris has the final assessment for the IRS on the 31st for a Customer Service Representative position. He did pass the assessment last year (they called with a job offer the day after he had accepted a job with the County of Fresno >.<) so we have hopes that he will again. If he does, it would be a 40 hour a week swing shift position (2:30pm-11pm) with the possibility of benefits. In about an hour, we are also heading out to 5 of the out lying school districts in Fresno County for him to apply to be a substitute teacher. He is technically still a tutor, but unfortunately, that hasn't bore any fruit yet. I'm still employed with the Music Dept and may be getting a promotion. They are still trying to figure out specifics since there was re-working of which supervisor was in charge of what aspect so I should find out closer to school starting.
The next month entails mostly finishing a paper for my Phonology incomplete from last semester and various family visits. School starts on August 23rd! I'm actually looking forward to it :) I'm taking 16 units (Spanish Lit., Spanish American Lit., Socio-Linguistics, Bilingualism, Bio/Behavioral Evolution, and Band). Thanks for holding on for this long update. Hopefully it won't be too long until we have more news to share!
2 comments:
You two have been busy! I hope Chris gets another job offer :) We graduated at the wrong time for jobs, huh? And great job on the GRE!! Yowzer.
Clara, I hope next semester is good...gosh, I miss school. In August Matt and I have been invited to his friend's baptism...now imagine me trying to explain to him about a baptism, lol.
I can't imagine me NOT being in school! I graduate in May and then it's credential program and then start teaching for a year or two and/or finish my music ed degree. I know I did the math and at SJSU (if Chris goes to Stanford), it's only another 33-ish units or to complete it.
And Chris did do awesome on the GRE! Now it's find more permanent work and applying to grad schools :/
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