It's almost thanksgiving!

The past few weeks have been pretty darn great. Can't complain

My boys played in the state tournament last weekend in Decatur, AL. We won 1 and lost 1. Here's the thing, why did we have to drive 4 hours to play just two games? It's a tournament! Shouldn't we be guaranteed at least 3 games? Oh Alabama... why do you not know how to organize a statewide tournament!? ugh. I was proud of my boys though. It was the best they have played all season.

Brent and I, once again, have a glorious road trip. We stayed at his parents' place in Birmingham on the Friday night before the tournament so that we could be absolutely and utterly spoiled by incredible hospitality. We went to a venue in downtown Birmingham called Work Play. Parachute was playing! They were great live. They have some awesome new stuff that is hopefully coming out soon. Hurry up Parachute! Please do not delay :)

This past weekend was great. I spent my whole Saturday hanging out with people at tailgates before the Auburn v. Georgia game. The best part of it was that I was given the amazing opportunity to see my buddy Logan. He and I were kanakuk counselors together in the same cabin for nearly 2 months. He went to UGA, so naturally he felt the inclination to come to Auburn to watch his dogs play the tigers. He is such a great guy. One of those peeps who you wish you could see everyday. We had a great conversation and got to catch up. The rest of the day was spent watching the game at my place with some friends and then hanging out with Tori. We ordered some pizza from Marco's (which is delicioso) and watched "How to Tame a Dragon". It was good, not as funny as i thought, but still a great movie.

Sunday was a beautiful day. We went to church with friends and then went out to eat afterwards. To my delight, we formed a little soccer pick-up game out at the fields. Then had Bible study after.

This week has been overcome by rain and wind. For the first couple of days this week I seriously felt mislead. I began to wonder if I really was in the south, because naturally when I think of rain and windy weather, I think of Kansas. Oh Kansas, I will see you soon...

So, I took full advantage and embraced the climate by sitting in my place and reading books and playing video games. Aaaah, I am convinced that there is nothing better.

I am currently reading two books: Radical by David Platte, and the 4th Harry Potter book The Goblet of Fire. I just finished reading 3 books of the Eragon series and am waiting with eager anticipation for the 4th book to come out. Get a move on Mr. Paolini!!

This weekend I will be accompanying some of my friends to Birmingham to stay at Brent's parents place. Apparently his parents came up with 4 free tickets to the Needtobreathe show! Yes. That will do. I don't know what else is in store for this weekend, but I will have you know that I in no way, shape, or form plan on doing any exercise whatsoever! Oh! and a bonus, Buns is bringing his puppy Rylee (a.k.a cutest puppy you'll ever see) with us. Maybe I'll get to do some cuddling (Tori is that ok? Just this once?).

I'm going to the Harry Potter midnight showing tonight with a bunch of folks. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, however; not so excited for having to work the next morning after only receiving an abated amount of sleep :(. Tori has come up with an astounding idea of going to Starbucks to get some coffee before hand. I gladly excepted this invitation for 2 reasons: 1. Because my girlfriend is beautiful and I love her 2. Because usually by 9 p.m. I am ready to go to bed so obviously I will be needing some sort of caffeinated beverage to get through to movie without dozing off ha.

Well! Hope you all are doing well. Maybe I'll get to blog a little bit this weekend. If not then, most likely next week when I'm in Manhappenin' kickin' it by the fire in the 66503.

Flyin' in on the 24th!

With His Grace and Love,

Mocha

Mellow Mushroom

pizza is ok. Yes, I said it. OK. It isn't worth $30, that's for sure.

It was really nice of Mrs. Scaife to get me some pizza though. I interpreted for her and some other teachers earlier this week for a parent/teacher conference. Man, my Spanish was rusty. I forgot a couple of words, but I think that I did well overall. I'm just glad I got to help out. Anyway, she said that she owed me lunch and bought some pizza from Mellow Mushroom today. It was quite funny to see the look on all the kids' faces when they saw my delicious looking pizza. They all were so jealous. haha suckers.

Last weekend was fun. I went tailgating with some friends before the Auburn/Arkansas game (sorry Pastor Pat). I didn't really feel like going to the game so I didn't waste my time looking for a ticket. Instead, I just stayed at a tailgate with Buns and some other friends and watched the game. It was perfect. Flat screen tv, eating food every 30 min, and beautiful weather. Plus, I didn't have to stand up the whole time!

It was good to go to church finally. It had been 2 weeks since I'd been. My boys had a game on Sunday. We lost 4-1 but the score doesn't reflect how we played. We played the hardest team we will ever play this year, so I was proud of my boys. Bible study has been awesome. I am really getting interested in Bible history and researching things. Right now my bible study is going through Luke. We have such great conversations about things. I love my friends, they are so encouraging and supportive. I know that I could confide in any of them.

Tori and I and some friends went to a Ben Rector concert last Friday. Ben always gives a good show, however it was sad to only hear like 5 songs out of him. You're better than that Ben!! The venue was cool though. It was out at some house/farm out in the middle of nowhere (which was hard to find btw). It was nice and cool. Had to sit on a blanket and keep warm. Hot chocolate. Clear sky with beautiful stars in the sky. As a matter of fact, there was a giant shooting star during the concert, during which everyone cheered. The poor band didn't notice it at the time, so they thought everyone was cheering for them haha.

The guy from Ecuador emailed back last week. He said that he would love to have me and my friends down there for a summer. Supposedly they just built a new soccer field and want to start some summer soccer camps and a league, but they would need people to help out and coach. So, that's where we would come in. I want to do this soooo bad!! For two whole months in Ecuador? Are you kidding me? That would be amazing!

I'm excited to go back home for Thanksgiving. I might have already mentioned this, but it's just that I'm so ready to see Manhattan again. It's been too long!!

Had the opportunity to play against the Auburn men's club soccer team. It was pretty fun. We lost like 3-0 but it was 11 old guys who have never played with each other against a team of guys who have been training for 2 months straight. You can imagine how out of shape I was, having not trained or run for the past 3 weeks haha. It was funny to get the ball (I played center mid) and turn to find all of my forwards to be standing huffing and puffing. We were all spent after the first 10 min of the game!

My favorite song right now is "Background" by Lecrae. It's sooo sick!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHnZRZiCYHE

Hope you all are doing well! Give me a call sometime so we can catch up!

Mocha :)

Man... this week flew by!

I can't believe it's already Friday!

I've had a normal week.

Monday was a normal day. Nobody wants to be back at school. Extra dose of coffee. Worked out after school with my buddy Buns and then went grocery shopping. I spent way too much!! I needed the food though... man my cabinets resembled a barren wasteland.

Same routine on Tuesday, as usual. I picked Tori up from work after I got off, then went home to take a quick nap. Then awoken and got ready for practice, which always consists of watching an episode of King Of Queens and Seinfeld ha. Then went to practice.

Wednesdays are the always the same as Mondays. Work, work out, hang out with peeps.

Thursdays are the same as Tuesdays except for a couple of little twists. I decided to make my week crazy by having my boys scrimmage the u-17 girls team for practice!! I know... I like to live on the edge. And those stinkin' girls are good!! I wanted my boys to lose so we could work on our mistakes, because apparently there are a lot of mistakes to be corrected considering we've tied 3 of our last 4 matches!! ugh...

Oh... and I got a flu shot. I didn't cry.

Then... the dreaded K-state vs. Nebraska game. I've never felt so embarrassed while watching a K-State game. I mean, giving up 48 points?? I'm surprised Bill didn't have a heart attack... I almost grabbed the remains of my whopper junior and aggravatingly threw it at my buddy's tv I was so disgusted. But, instead i controlled my anger and held it in so that it would take me 30 minutes to fall asleep later in the evening (which option would you choose?). Poor Manhappenin, probably wasn't so happenin last night (or happy, for Manhattan is also known as Manhappyness). I bet the bars in Aggieville had nothing to complain about, they've probably never "harvested" such great business from Cornhusker fans. Oh well, it's just a game right?? Besides, at least Barcelona won't disappoint me any time soon. Viva la Azulgrana!!

Today (Friday) has been great. FCA at the crack of dawn. Eating donuts after singing some worship songs? I'm not complaining. Paul and Mikiela have been great today. Gotta love those kids. Gonna work out here at the school afterwards. Then Brent and I are traveling to Birmingham to stay with his parents tonight so we don't have to drive 4 hours in the morning to get to our game in Huntsville tomorrow. My boys play at 1 p.m. After that Brent and I will make yet another pit stop at his parents place on the return journey to Auburn, where the next day we will play another game at 9:30 a.m. Following the game, we may go to the Auburn women's soccer game for "kick's" and giggles. Then, as always, we will proceed to Bible study :).

There you have it!

Big shout out to the MNU boys for tying Baker, good job with Culver, and good luck on Tuesday.

Peace and Love

Mocha

Is that cool weather that i feel???

Fall has finally come to Auburn! Yay! I definitely would rather be warm than cold, but I have to admit, I'm ready for some change in weather. It is beautiful! 70's... you kiddin' me? you can't get much better than that. At least I'm not sweating in the mornings anymore ha.

I went to Huntsville, AL this weekend to coach my boys. It is supposedly a 4 1/2 hour drive to Huntsville from Auburn, but my buddy Brent did a wonderful job of driving at a comfortable speed of 90 mph so we could get there in a whopping 3 1/2 hours. The game went alright. We ended up tying 1-1 though. I'd rather tie than lose, considering it was an away game. It would have been terrible to drive all the way there to lose. I was proud of my boys though. It was a God awful field so obviously our possession style of play would not do as well. But, they fought through it and came up with a decent result.

The rest of the weekend was the shiznit. My friend Brent and I stayed in Birmingham at his parents' place and just chillaxed hardcore. We ate pizza and lisaugna (spell check) and drank about 8 cans of Dr. Pepper a piece while we watched football. Finally, a relaxing weekend!! We spent some time walking on the campus of Samford University. It was a beautiful campus. We also went to a really nice church, Brook Hill's. It was great.

Picture day!!!

And oh it was joyous!! Haven't taken a school picture since high school. Boy oh boy was i excited. Paul and Mikiela looked great too. They were quite stylish. Apparently I get free copies of my pictures and a free yearbook. Could life get any better? I mean, forget the full-time benefits like medical and dental insurance haha.

So let me tell you how awesome this friday has been so far. TGIF... miss those shows (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper). First, i arrived at work to find free donuts. I had 3. Then I went to the pop machine to get a Dr. Pepper and lo and behold 3 delicious soft drinks came tumbling down. 3 for the price of 1!! Then I got my picture taken. THEN Paul and I watched Lord of the Rings, specifically the part where Gandalf fights the Balrog. "YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!!" Paul really gets into the movies, more than i do, which is surprising. He even almost started crying when Gandalf fell off the bridge, which is funny because Paul even knows the fate of Gandalf. He knows that Gandalf comes back in the second movie. Why does he get sad you ask? The answer is simple. Paul and Gandalf carry a special connection, but shhhh, it's supposed to be a secret. Anyway, it was precious.

Tonight should be fun. Tori and I are going out to eat at some nice restaurant called Hamilton's. After that there is supposed to be some block party downtown with a band so maybe we'll go walk around a lil.

My team has a game this weekend. I hope that goes well!

Well... gotta help with some math problems!

Hasta Pronto,

Mocha

New life

full of work and living for some free time during the weekends!!

Sorry to you all about not updating :(. I'm terrible at this, ugh.

I'm going to do my best to get you all caught up.

For those you who don't know, I am currently working at Drake Middle School in Auburn, Alabama as a special education aide.

I love it.

I get to help two kids in need everyday. One boy and one girl. Th

ey are two sweet kids that have to get around by wheelchairs and since they are physica

lly incapable of a lot of different things I have to - get to- assist them. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it can get frustrating, but then I think...

How selfish am I?

I mean, two kids who do not get to have a "normal" childhood due to misfortune and I lose my patience because i begin to think about my own agenda. So, immediately I redirect my thinking and try to be more compassionate. For the most part, I get to spend the majority of my day and time laughing with two free-spirited and loving individuals while being cautious and keeping my feet out of the path of speedy wheelchairs (I have decided to call Paul's the Black Mamba due to it's unpredictable and deadly movements). I am surrounded by multip

le kids everyday! it can get tiring.

Paul is originally from Taiwan. He has lived in the states for about six years. Mikiela is the other little angel. She is from Auburn. Paul has cerebral palsy and I'm not quite sure if Mikiela has the same. Paul comes from a complete family that takes care of him very well. And... it shows. Unfortunately, on the other hand, Mikiela comes across as a neglected child. Her parents are separated and her mom works to support a family of six children, which includes Mikiela. My heart breaks. If I had the means, I would adopt her. She is such a sweet girl.

So, that's my main occupation at the moment. I definitely enjoy it. I feel that God has

been teaching me more about how to be compassionate and less self absorbed. I wake up every morning with motivation for a worthy objective. I feel like I have a greater purpose.

My second job is coaching. Coaching soccer, that is, if th

ere is anyone reading this that doesn't know me at all. I have a U-15 boys team. It's through the Auburn Thunder Soccer Club. It is a traveling team which requires commitment. We have practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Almost every weekend we have a game. They're a good group of kids. Many a time they have tried my patience and made me angry. I

try not to yell too often, but sometimes that is what it takes to get them motivated. One day, we lost to a team that I thought was not as skilled as us, but we were thoroughly outplayed and we ended up losing. If any of you have seen the movie Miracle you can imagine how much I made my team run after the game ha.

Patience Seth.

That is what i have to remind my self. Patience. I can't treat this team like MNU. They aren't some soccer power. They are from Auburn, Alabama. They probably care more about college football than their own team. I'm trying my hardest to adjust. Soccer doesn't have near the value or significance down here like it did in Kansas. Yes... that means very, ver

y small significance. But, my team is thought to be one of the best out of all the teams in the club. So i take pride in that.

So you are all probably wondering how The relationship is going. :)

Last time I checked, she is still beautiful and I love her (because that is all that matters right? haha). It is going well! Tori and I just got done visiting her mom in ATL. We are both just continuing to learn how to live our different lives and still connect and grow together. One day at a time. At times it can be rough because I'm living in the 'profess

ional world' while she is still in her college years. It seems like there is a new challenge or change every month. So, we're trying to figure out how to get through things with support from each other. Most of the time I'm pretty drained from work, coaching, and just good old fashion busyness. I am learning how to spend time with her in the midst of all that. It may seem like a sacrifice sometimes, but I need to understand that is what love is and that is how things are going to be in the future.

We are both in our own bible studies. She has found an amazing group of ladies that she

meets with every Sunday. And I have the same on my end. We are both going to Cornerstone Church, but we aren't involved much. But, we have expressed interest in helping ou

t with youth. The only problem is that they haven't had a youth pastor for a while and are just now getting a new one. So, we are just waiting to see what the Lord opens up once the dude arrives.

I guess I just can't get enough of kids :)

Last thing.

Ecuador.

Yep.

I want to go soooo bad!

My friend Buns and I are trying to plan our own sort of mission trip to Ecuador this summer. We want to be there for like 2 months. We would love to teach English or coach soccer (the only two things that I know how to do). So, we have had a blessing of 2 or 3 connections down there so hopefully, God willing, we can figure something out. Gotta be honest, it has been on my mind like crazy as of late! That a

nd the Wheel of Times Series. I'm on book nine! Aaaaaand Universal Studios is supposed to be making a movie about it :) :) :). yeah... I'm a fantasy junky, I'm not ashamed!

Well friends, I leave you with a couple of videos and pics. Love you all!! Don't hesitate to give me a quick call or email!

Peace, Love, and God above

Mocha

Pictures include College Gameday on ESPN, the Manchester United game, a Lord of The Rings cake that a friend made for me for my birthday, Paul playing putt-putt, Mikiela and Paul before the pep rally, and Auburn football tailgating.

One of these videos shows you the contagious laughter of Paul Liu as he walks on the treadmill and the adorable smile of Mikiela as she fails to do any sort of workout during P.E. How can you punish such a sweet girl?? If you have an answer then you need to tell me right away or she will be getting away with everything this year.

The other video shows you how deprived I was as a seventh grader. Why didn't we ever have pep rallies????

Thank you God for the World Cup.

So here's what has been going on.

I have to admit, the Lord's time is pretty ridiculous. He always has everything planned out, and it's so unfair because we don't have insight. Couldn't we just have a sneak peek of what He's doing!?

But, on the other hand, It makes life exciting. I have learned how awfully difficult is for me to trust and remain faithful when things aren't going my way. I get stressed, doubtful, and quite honestly just afraid of what the future holds. Yet, like a sucker punch to the side of the face He surprises you (but should it be a surprise?).

Having said this, I'm so excited to tell you that God has been putting pieces together in my life.

I got a job at the Middle School as a special education teaching assistant.

I am also going to be a full time soccer coach for the Auburn Thunder Soccer Club.

God is faithful... again.
He provided again.
Why am I always so surprised when He provides?
Why are you?
Why are we?

Right now I am working full time at Dick's Sporting Goods as the customer service specialist. It's stressful, but I have to remind myself that it is a blessing from the Lord. It's a way of making a little money before I transition to my next job.

I have made so many AMAZING friends that after playing two hours of soccer on the tennis courts, sweaty and painfully tired, will sit down their fatigued bodies on the hot concrete and converse with me about life and its struggles. As I write about this, it has come to my attention that this is obviously the work on the Lord. I have done nothing to receive these blessings, It's just by HIS grace and mercy. Despite my lack of faith and my doubt, He has given my so much.

So much.

As of a couple of weeks ago, I have been thinking more about missions. I don't know if this is just a temporary thought, but I have been praying that God would provide me a way to pay my school loans. They are pretty hefty, but there is no telling what God is capable of.

I would love to just travel the world or South America or just really anywhere for a year and use soccer as a ministry. My idea derives from the film Pelada. If you haven't heard of it you can check it out at pelada-movie.com. Or maybe have a soccer camp of some sort.

I'll be leaving Dick's Sporting Goods in late July. The job at the Middle School starts during the first week of August. I figure it would be nice to give myself maybe a week of no work between the transition to just enjoy being jobless ha.

Love you all. Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.

In His abundance of Blessings,

Mocha



Pictures!