semi-creepy?

so the other day i was sitting on the pool deck with one of my co-workers during a break between swim classes, and she said "hey erin, do you have a blog?" i said "no, why?"  "well, i was in northern CA visiting my boyfriend last weekend and his mom was online and was like 'hey do you know an erin watts?' apparently she was online and saw your blog or something where you wrote about sellwood pool and asked me, 'isn't that where you work?'" well...at this i was kind of freaked out. i told my friend, i definitely don't have a blog, that's so creepy! after a few minutes i realized...oh..duh, i do have a blog, kind of..and i did write about sellwood pool! anyway my co-worker said "oh, weird, i guess she just found it through a string of other people's blogs" 

ok, does anyone think that's semi-creepy? not that i care that my friend's boyfriend's mom found our blog...but i guess i just forget we're just online...floating around in the world wide web...for anyone to see us. am i a tad paranoid? maybe. hmm.

in other news...i cut my hair off.

and its someone else's turn to give a summer update (especially *ahem* aryn and chris and katie powell if you're out there) because i just posted.

Just in case you hadn't seen...

this:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=122455792462&subj=602436608

Duh-nuh....duh-nuh...duhnuhduhnuhduhnuh...!!!!

Realizing my computer is getting slower and VERY LOW on space, I decided to organize some things and get rid of files I don't need (my Input is hating me right now!). Anyway, in the process, I found the Conflict Management Styles worksheet and thought I would refresh your memories.... :-)

THE SHARK (forcing): Sharks try to overpower opponents by forcing them to accept their solution to the conflict. Their goals are highly important to them, and relationships are of minor importance. They seek to achieve their goals at all costs. They are not concerned with the needs other others. They do not care if others like or accept them. Sharks assume that conflicts are settled by one person winning and one person losing. They want to be the winner. Winning gives sharks a sense of pride and achievement. Losing gives them a sense of weakness, inadequacy and failure. They try to win by attacking, overpowering, overwhelming, and intimidating others.

In reading that, I realized it's a bit harsh...and would really like to point out that most of the characteristics that from this description that our Shark exhibits stems from her Competition theme. And luckily for us, she actually does care about relationships. Okay, that's all for now. I'll probably post more stuff when I find it...cause I'm bound to find something else interesting! :-)

Post deleter

Tyler White* is a post deleter.

I was going to comment on the Harry Potter post but it is now gone.

What I was going to say:

How was it? Please tell me you dressed up.

*I'm assuming that Tyler deleted his own post... apologies if it wasn't you! :)

Moving on...

to South Africa.

I am officially on part II of my trip and freezing my butt of at night...stinking winter

ready for an erin-watts-summer-update?

basically, my summer IS sellwood pool. i spend, on average, 8 hours at the pool everyday. i am 10 shades darker than i was when you all last saw me, due to a beautiful full week of 90 degree weather, and i am perpetually wet. from 8:30am-10:30am i teach "junior swim instructor," a program for 11 to 14 year olds where they learn about our swim lesson program and actually get in the water to help instructors teach swimming lessons. i took it when i was 12, now i'm teaching it. cute, right? from 11:00-1:00 i am in the water teaching 1/2 hour swim lessons of various ages and levels. my favorites are the parent/child classes where i get to play with 6 mo. to 18 mo. olds in the water. fun. from 1:00-4:30 i work at the front desk during our open swim time. computers...cash registers...answering phones...you get the idea. at 4:30, i go home and collapse. and rest. often this includes movies with my family, baking something, working on my online class (art appreciation...eh...i know), and doing...or avoiding...those random little things that need to get done. this is monday-friday! some weeks vary. every other week we have inservices at 7am on tuesdays. looong days.

overall, its a great job. having been there for going on 6 summers, i know the program backwards and forwards, i am paid well, and i know a lot of employees and families who come to the pool. its those weeks of not-so-great-weather...65 and overcast...when the water is just a little too cold...that are harder. thankfully, those days have been the minority! it can be tiring being around a large staff of people who, for the most part, don't know the Lord. all day everyday. i'm still trying to figure out what representing Him at my job looks like. when do i say something? when do i stay silent? if you think of it, you could pray that I would be sensitive to the heart of God in this area. it seems appropriate to put a picture of the pool here...but i don't even have one! here's one i found online. our building is sweet looking, huh? love portland for its buildings...and for many other reasons, as you all know. =)

other than work, there's not much happening in my summer other than a wedding to go to, and the HARRY POTTER movie coming out THIS WEEK! BUT a few pretty awesome events took place in my life over the last month. #1 - dear friends ally and lauren from ARISE drove all the way up from SoCal just to visit me, having never been to the northwest. i had a blast showing off portland - i am completely braggy about the magnificence of my city. probably to the point where its annoying. then the three of us drove up to duvall, WA, where my roommate Michelle lives, and none other than AMANDA WHEELER came over and hung out with us! i got to see Amanda a 2nd time when the #2 awesome event happened - MEGHAN WYCOFF came to visit! she flew into seattle, spent time with Amanda, and then Amanda and I met at an Applebee's at the halfway point between Sammamish and Portland to pass Meghan off. =) We had a delightful time, and then I got to show off Portland AGAIN! 

A few snapshots.

Friend visit #1 - Ally and Lauren

 (artistic, right? the feet are my sister Emily's who took the pic...haha.)

Friend visit #2 - Meghan and Amanda! So excited to be reunited.

We could be a commercial for Applebee's.

This is my response to Ally telling me to make a "too cool" face.

Had to share due to the shirt.

Portland is amazing pic #1

Portland is amazing pic #2 (I could go on forever with these but i will stop here ;D)

Sound Off!!... Y-M!!... Once Again!!... C-A!!...

Well peeps...

In just 6 short hours, I will be off to Rancho Cucamonga for YMCA camp!!
I'm more excited about it than I thought I would be and relationships with a few of the staff members are already starting off better than I thought they would be!

However, I'll still need all the prayers you can give me, it's going to be a tough week, especially starting off with the fact that I may only get about 2 hours of sleep tonight.. I have to leave La Mirada at 6am and I haven't even packed yet! Yikes!

I'll be writing again in about 1 week!

Marshmallows!!!

Many of you may not know that I am a huge fan of marshmallows, but as I just stated, I am. Because of this, awhile back my family bought me a huge back of GIANT marshmallows...and when I say GIANT I mean each marshmallow weighs 1 oz in and of itself. I thought they were hilarious and yet for some reason, I cannot bring myself to eat them (I get a sugar rush every time I simply glance at the bag). So I finally decided, thanks to my sister's ingenious idea, to make Rice Krispie Treats with them. The reason I'm telling you all this? Because as soon as I put the GIANT marshmallows in the microwave, and watched them grow and grow in size, I immediately thought of CJ and the marshmallow cream.... :-). SO I thought I'd share my experience with you.(huge bag of GIANT marshmallows)
(Marshmallow cream reenactment...almost hit the top!)(This was the hard part...stirring of course, not stuffing it in my mouth)
The finished product! Unfortunately, I can't actually share this part with you...though I'd love to! Don't think they'd fare well in the mail though. Hope you enjoyed :-).

Oh yea, I forgot to tell you!

So I have been meaning to tell you guys this for about a week now, but I've been either too busy or too lazy to go take a picture...

I had a HUGE prayer answered last week when I went home to visit with my parents for the weekend. They surprised me with a.............

NEW CAR!!

I'm seriously still in shock over the whole thing, it's totally unlike my parents and it came at just the right time because my poor little Saturn hardly made it to their house. They originally were going to wait and give it to me when I graduated but they were really excited about my plans to continue on with Graduate school (yet another thing that was totally unlike my parents) that they wanted to give it to me now! Again, totally in shock, but excited beyond words..

oh, and please feel free to mock the fact that it has a car bra =]

July 4th- Red, White & Blues....

Hey everyone,

So my July 4th has been lame (however, the evening isn't done yet)
Tyler has to wake up early and therefore is playing with legos instead of watching fireworks on the roof of my house with me (and if he would have been here, I definitely would NOT have gotten stuck on the roof... I see now that my parents had a legit reason for not letting me go up there as a kid).

So anyways, after I figured out how to get down from the roof I randomly read through the Staff Quote book and had a good laughing-with-myself session but I had some questions....

and since I'm feeling pitiful and narcissistic I chose my own quotes- does anyone remember the context of these??? I can't seem to remember!

1: “My only hesitation is if I didn’t know anyone I didn’t want to spend a weekend sleeping with them.” – K Stes

2: “What were you guys talking about when I was the Holy Spirit?” – K Stes


hope you are all having a good time!
=]

Look what I found...

oops.

I left out a semi-news-worthy part of my day. There is a fire in Temecula and our church was evacuated. My dad was working at the church at the time. Last I heard, the fire hasn't burned any structures or houses (it is in the hills behind the building where luckily, not very much is). This is a pic my Dad took with his phone from the church roof (yes, that's his thumb, he's a little new at this whole camera phone thing ;-)

and here are a couple pics from online:

Just pray for the fire to be put out soon and not destroy any homes/buildings, for safety for the the firefighters/police, also there was a huge outreach event planned at the church tonight that had to be canceled that a lot of people put a lot of time into and my dad is doing a wedding at the church this weekend so just that this wouldn't cause problems for the bride and groom :)

Summer

Well, at this moment in time, I can't necessarily follow a business venture half way around the world, mosquito nets, and passports... but I can tell you what I did today. It will make the rest of you all feel better about your summers ;)

Today I...

My aunt and uncle own a preschool in Garden Grove and we went and visited. Isn't it cute? They were bar-b-queing for the Fourth of July today so that was fun and the kids were super cute. 

This is the outside:

Part of the inside:

After taking a nap... I went lap swimming. First time since being home. oops. The pool is... um... interesting. I'm used to the Temecula CRC and Splash! which are pretty nice. Lets just say that the water was a little cloudy and when the lifeguard was out on a deck, someone was sitting next to him playing the guitar. 

And one of my favorite parts about being home... being able to make my own food or have home cooked non cafe meals! (I, though, have nothing against the cafe:)

Tonight I had cereal (half regular cheerios/half honey nut) and strawberries... 

With a fork of course...

Anyone else do anything exciting... or not exciting and still want to share?? :)

Stamps

I have now filled up two whole pages of my passport! Wohoo! The visa for Kenya is a full page...


Also, I woke up at 5am to the Muslim call to prayer...that was fun

Anyway, I'm doing well - just trying to adjust to the time change. Out of the 27 hours of flight time, I only slept for 4 hours...so I'm beat. But I did watch several movies...I shed a tear for Marley & Me, enjoyed 17 Again (Meg, it would have been an infinitely better choice than Ghosts...), finally saw Slumdog, started Madagascar 2 to get in the Africa mindset...haha

Tomorrow we are going on a city tour, so I'm pretty excited for that. Kenyans are pretty nice and so proud of their country. We met with a pastor yesterday and he and his wife showed us around and gave us some good pointers on how to avoid getting taken advantage of, which is great!

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well!