I love summer.  And fall.  We have begun my favorite time of each year: the second half.  A few years ago I realized that I really preferred the second half of the year, and don't much care for late winter and spring.  I think it comes from my preference for "extreme" weather.  Now nothing is extreme about the weather in southern california, but it's the best I got. So I prefer June-December- with hot summers, fall atmosphere (if not weather), and christmas spirit.  Yay for summer!

I'm taking a break from school this summer, mostly because when I arrived at my summer school class, it was being translated from Korean.  I also am looking at graduating in May 2010, by way of switching my major back to Masters in Pastoral Studies, Emphasis in Worship Leadership.  The loans were not a good idea to be taking out for the next three years to finish the MDIV.

I'm writing a Kids Musical for WORD music!  Super super excited- more to come on that later.  But also part of the reason I can not be in school 12 units per semester.

I have not had any soda since the beginning of Lent....I think maybe was early March?  Habit miraculously broken....



Went to hang with Travis at the Living Proof Conference in Stockton.  Heidi made this funny shirts with a photo of Travis looking dorky on them- that said West Coast Travis Cottrell Fan Club.

Daniel's sister April got married in May- here's a picture of us at the wedding.



I've been trying to go to the beach as often as possible on the weekends- since it's a mile or two from our house.



Noah learned to ride a bike with no training wheels!

Well, that's my update for now, Blessings!

A Quote I came across while working on a paper for my "Church and Society" class:

“Making a career of Nothing- wandering through malls, killing time, making small talk, watching television programs until we know their characters better than our own children- robs the community of our gifts and energies and shapes life into a yawn at the God and savior of the world.  The person who will not bestir herself, the person who hands herself over to Nothing, in effect says to God: you have made nothing of interest and redeemed no one of consequence, including me.” -Cornelius Plantinga

So these past two weeks have been jam packed with absolute huge blessings in the Semsen household.  First of all, I had the enormous privilege of directing and premiering Celeste Clydesdale's newest Children's Musical for Word Music. For those of you who don't know, every single of the past 11 Kids Musicals that I have directed have been Celeste Clydesdales, so I'm obviously a huge fan.  It has always been a dream of mine for her to see our amazing kids- so this opportunity was exciting and stressful all rolled into one. I'm thankful for a great staff and co-director who helped us pull it off just 3 weeks after our Christmas Kids Performance (and two of those weeks were Christmas break.)  Here's a few photos- the DVD will probably come out from Word shortly.




2.  Daniel and I had the honor of being able to go and sing with our friend Travis Cottrell on his Live DVD recording in Woodstock, GA last weekend.  Daniel had done half of the orchestrations, so it was doubly cool for him.  It was probably one of, if not the single most powerful musical worship experiences of my life.  Such a spirit of worship combined with professional musicians, and a worshipping crowd of 7,500.  Words cannot really describe how exciting and thrilling it was to be a part of this- and additionally, although we intended to just be a part of the 300 member voice choir, after the Dress Rehearsal Travis and the team decided to put 10 people on microphones to add to the choir sound, and we got to do that.  (Never mind that he asked me to switch to soprano and I freaked out all night memorizing a new part:)  So so fun.  I wish I had brought a camera.  I will try to get a few pictures up.....



one of the rehearsals

Joli and me

Me, Leanne, and Heidi

Travis, Heidi, Jeremy, Travis' wife Angela, Leanne, me and Daniel--very, very tired in the hotel after the concert! I think Travis must have signed a million autographs before that...