First Down: Melissa

All our bets about who will get married first are over -- it'll be Melissa on August 20 in Southern California. Congratulations, Melissa and Eric!


The Decadox girls affectionately referred to Melissa as Biola's first lady because she was dating the student government president, Eric Weaver.


The nickname was doubly meaningful because their story really did begin with politics. When several Biola students went to California's Republican Convention, Michelle encouraged Melissa to take the last ticket. When Sarah Palin spoke at the Home Depot Center, Michelle urged her to "need a ride" from Eric.

Melissa had always thought that Eric was a hearthrob and only slightly abused her journalism privileges by arranging to interview him for a Chimes article her junior year. Now it was her senior year and fate had presented another chance with Eric Weaver. Before the phone call, the rest of us were only aware of Melissa's nervous struggle by her giggling fits, frantic rationalizations that he wouldn't think she was weird, and violent back-flops onto the couch. But sure enough, Eric fell for the bait and they started "hanging out" soon after the convention.

And now they're engaged!

Ships Ahoy for Spring Banquet

A Decadoxer never misses an opportunity to dress up and take part in communal application of makeup. That in mind, Spring Banquet presented ample opportunity for 70 percent of our membership to party hardy on the Queen Mary ship in this grand Biola tradition.

Thirty percent of the Decadox took a date, while James Dean (pictured at left) and Scott Munekawa collectively took the other 40 percent.

There was some misinformation transmitted to one Decadox vehicle by a certain AS vice president: rumor had it that all attendees had to arrive before 7 p.m. because the ship was setting sail at that time. Hopelessly behind schedule, that Decadox vehicle arrived late. But to their joy, the ship had not yet left port! Curious, Scott Munekawa asked a crew member when the ship was departing, and the security guard laughed in his face. Apparently, the ship hadn't moved an inch for the past 40 years.

Scott felt a little silly.

Overall, the evening was delightful. Tasty food, enless photos and an excellent jazz band filled with some [creepy] old men made for a lovely banquet. But we were soon to find out why Biola's no-social-dancing policy may need revision -- a banquet without dancing only keeps attendees' attention for about an hour and a half. We were all ready to go shortly after we ate our chocolate mousse and flan.

With the great company involved, I'll venture to say it was better than prom.

Jet Setters Visit the Decadox

We moved on from our sticky fingers business and welcomed two of Janelle's traveling buddies, a British couple she met in Nepal, named Ev and Alicia.

Alicia was actually from Pennsylvania (woot!), but had adopted an accent almost as thick as her husband's. Ev had a sense of humor, but we were probably most amused with how his accent could make almost anything hilarious. I don't even want to know how it sounded when Ev tried to help Julie with her German homework.

What a life. The two spun stories from their year-long, around the world traveling experiences--one year, they said, can feel like 30 and can make or break a marriage.

Their visit was short-lived, but before they left we introduced them to two American must-haves: In-N-Out and Berry Cool, our favorite frozen yogurt joint.

Best lines of the day -- Berry Cool:
Claire: Yeah, with 10 girls in the house people call it a brothel. (Michelle's PET PEEVE)
Ev: A brothel? Well I'll be your pimp.
(Gangster-looking guy with dreads pulls up in a brand new Mercedes)
Ev: Oh, here's your pimp right here.

Sticky, Sticky Fingers

As fate would have it, some people have selective vision in noting initials on food in the refrigerator. Kate's pomegranate vinegar was recently assailed by a chugging thief and an e-mail pleading its recovery was dispatched pronto. The hullabaloo inspired Jessica to author this poem:

it all started with the diet coke, it was in the fridge and then i was diet ... broke!
oh where did my little diet cokes go, was it patrol one, or was it lost in cookie dough?
and then the brownies, oh my oh my. i wish i was paying better attention with my eye (to the brownies).
maybe then I would have seen, who ate katie's brownies, which are not flavored of bean.

oh the decadox, is having some problems, with sticky fingers as sticky as bubble gum(s).
just today, we found out it happened,the raspberry vinegar is gone!
all while katie took a nap(pened). i mean, who drinks a cup of vinegar anyway?
it's probably the fastest way you could ever decay.
and then there's claire's special table cloth, flowery, lovely and not full of moth.
it's under the black sofa... we don't know how.
and claire's spirit is taking a pow (of rejection).
oh woe to all of this missing food,
hopefully this poem will put you in a better mood.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños a tí!

It was a cumpleaños muy feliz for me -- the whole Decadox showed up! To top it off, the girls helped out as we fixed up carne asada, homemade tortillas, frijoles and arroz! ¡Que divertido!

And if the Mexico flag looks a little ... squarish, it´s because it doubles as a bandanna. Thanks, Dollar Store.

Thanksgiving Breakfast

Recipe from Hannah Reid (James’ Novia)


Cranberry Orange Scones:
1 box cran orange muffin mix (don’t use canned berries if it has them)
1 egg
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoon orange juice
1-2 handfuls or craisins

Blend with electric mixer
Drop ice cream scooper-sized portions on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 350 for 10-15 min or until toothpick comes clean

Icing:
Mix powdered sugar and water, drizzle over baked scones

Devonshire cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup sour cream
3 tablespoon powdered sugar

Whip with electric mixer until thick

James brought the flower tea!

Decadox Moments Slideshow

Take 10 -- Our First Complete Group Picture

One of the Decadox's perpetual predicaments is coordinating a group picture that feature all ten members. Alas, the occasion arrived -- a fondue rendezvous in celebration of Janelle's 23rd birthday -- that we ALL happened to attend.

Here is our first full group shot. Clockwise from left: Julie, Janelle, Amanda, Gail, Melissa, Michelle, Claire, Katie, Jessica and Cheryl.

Miss Fullerton is in the House!

Miss Fullerton 2009 has officially wrapped up (to our relief) and the Decadox has returned with one crown, one tiara and a houseful of happy girls.

Jessica, with her confident swagger, stunning good looks and spectacular piano skills, was crowned Miss Fullerton and will be headed to Miss California at the end of May.

The toned, elegant and talented pianist/composer Amanda made it into the top five and got a tiara for her brilliant accomplishment.

As for me, well, let's just say I ended up with the 10 other girls who stood back to watch the action from downstage. But I got the uncontested privilege of sharing in the celebration of my two housemates, and as a result, I was the only non-finalist who wasn't trying to choke back tears at the coronation. It was a great moment.

What made the pageant great, in spite of the ups and downs and stagefright, was how the Decadox teamed up to make it happen. Melissa loaned me a dress and swimsuit; Cheryl helped accessorize us and do hair and makeup. Katie made us signs we could read from the stage and put together a "pageant emergency kit" with everything from shimmer lotion and hair gloss to bobby pins and baby powder. She even bought me a bouquet at the end, which made my night! And I can't forget all the prayers and encouragement everyone offered for me as I struggled with a bad case of nerves.

All the girls -- except for Claire, who had to keep California Adventure running -- showed up to cheer loudly and proudly for us. I think we were the most loved little pageant girls there last night.

Here's a toast to our resident beauty queens, and to the house that carried us through it all. Viva la Decadox!

LEAVE us alone

To the individual(s) who kindly dropped off a two-foot-deep sea of leaves on our porch, in such a manner that a decomposing landslide of leaves bombarded the first person to leave the house this morning, I applaud you. It was a worthy prank.

And I also warn you. The wrath of the Decadox awaits you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all the Decadox girls!

We hope your holidays were full of family, good food, great memories and joyful remembrance of the birth of our Messiah.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Our first grad

Melissa graduated last week! Congrats, girl! Some of the Decadox girls were able to be there to celebrate with you, but on behalf of those who couldn't, "YAY MELISSA!"

Ok, actually, Amanda graduated, too, but she is walking in May with most of the house, so there will be a ton of pictures and celebrating for her comin' later.

No worries on the home front, though. Even though she's graduated, Melissa will be here this semester.

Ode to the Decadox, the friendliest house on the block

This poem was submitted by the venerable bard, James Browning, this morning when he came over to cook us breakfast.

There is a house in Buena Park,

Or is it La Mirada?

Wher the welcome light is never dark

And they're quick with a "de nada"

They call their home the Decadox

Full of the loveliest ladies in town

And their doors are never locked

Unless you're some dude whose car has broke down

One of the friendliest places in the world,

Some might say that 10 is too many

But when you get to know these girls

You just couldn't subtract any

Hot tubs, lattes and parties galore

So much food I feel like a hog

Who could ask for anything more

You might even wind up on the blog

So regardless of who the judges choose

This coming February 7

I don't see how anyone could lose

Out of this house so close to heaven.

Michelle, Jessica Oh and Amanda Zook are official contestants for the 2009 Miss Fullerton Pageant!
Take a look at the Miss Fullerton website to see our girls pictures, platforms and talents.

http://www.missfullerton.com/contestants09.php?y=2009

The pageant is on February 7 or 8 (sorry, we're not really sure yet) so please come show your support for our girls. We're planning to have a pizza/in-n-out party afterwards while watching Miss Congeniality, so yea. We'll update you with that event later.

Airing Our Ugly Furniture

As much as we love our house, we would be dishonest if we didn't disclose its one flaw: some ugly furniture. We all showed up in August to take stock of what we had collectively--it wasn't much. As we are all operating on minimal college budgets, we had to be creative with the decorating. We stalked neighborhood yard sales, kept a constant eye on free furniture listings and begged all the boys we knew to use their trucks for transportation. The results turned out OK, but we had some adventures along the way. For example, Amanda and Gail found a beautiful mustard yellow pleather couch in a dumpster and managed to get it out before anyone else did. It was missing a leg, but they implemented a few bricks from the back yard and you can hardly tell!

Despite all our efforts at cheap ingenuity, we still have a few "oh well" pieces haunting the house. Here are just a few of the "winners. " Please help us decide which one is the least deserving of our house.


Amanda and Gail picked this oak baby up at a garage sale and managed to wrestle it into Amanda's little Corolla. They planned to add a few more shelves, but alas, this lonesome shelf remains happily single like most of the girls in the house.

This is the homemade stenciled step-stool that graces our kitchen for the shorter residents that can't reach their food cupboards. There's no doubt whose it is with Amanda's name scrawled four times in pink paint on the top.

This white wicker table has seen better days with its previous owner, but unfortunately that person is dead now. Gail and Michelle happened to hear about a man who didn't want to see his late wife's belongings around the house, so they offered to take them off his hands. It was a little awkward when they arrived to go through her stuff and they're still not sure if it was worth it.

This five-headed lamp (with only two functioning heads) has been a joke since day one. Our brazen Medusa has made a grand tour of the house, moving from one room to another as different people have tried to find a less conspicuous place for it. This beaut was Melissa's prized possession as a freshman.

This baby screams mod 80s, and while the color goes with our couch covers, it just can't do our entertainment nook the credit it's due. I'm sure the "one-piece simplicity" was one of its greatest assets at one point, but now it just makes the house look like a dentist's waiting room.

Gail says she feels dejected when she sits in this butterfly chair. Whoever settles there ends up involuntarily slouching and feeling half as big as they are as their body kinda gets folded in two. Additionally, it's necessary to launch out of it in one quick movement when rising, otherwise a series of hesitating jerks result. House note: Keep away from obese guests. Besides its impracticality and strong church picnic chair vibe, c'mon now--it's just ugly.

But you decide. Which piece is worse? Oh, and boys, we want to solve our furniture problem, so if you don't need your truck for a few hours over interterm ... we might just have a few extra man points to give away.

Cottage cheese and Christmas traditions

Our readers have spoken -- and apparently the most disgusting thing to find in the Decadox fridge would be Michelle's cottage cheese. Wait till they see the same cottage cheese after Christmas break ...

New on the Decablogue is a fresh poll. Although we've already decked the halls with evergreen and thrown a Christmas party, there's always more Christmas traditions on tap. Help us decide which one to incorporate.

Pageant Practice, Session #1

Hi, this is Cheryl and I LOVE THIS BLOG!!!!

That's exactly why I created a video especially for the blog.  Some of my housemates are participating in a pageant and know I'm an expert at such things, having witnessed a Mr. Downey competition and being best friends with a former Mr. Downey himself.  Also to my credit, I have seen and studied Miss Congeniality on more than one occasion.

So I decided to coach my housemates on their pageant walking skills.  I also doubled as a DJ and videographer.  What can I say?  I'm multitalented.

International Traipsing

Goodness gracious. We've been all over the place! Michelle and Gail went up to Grass Valley for Thanksgiving, while Cheryl traipsed all over London town. If you know Cheryl, you know it definitely wasn't a boring trip. She came back with tons of stories, photos, and a video she is especially proud of. View it here. Now that she's back, she's been rockin' British styles and leggings.

So today, I called Janelle to see if she wanted to go to lunch at the cafeteria with me. I didn't think much of it when the call went straight to her voicemail. Stupid me. I forgot she was going to NYC!Why? Just because she' s awesome like that. Yep. She got a sweet airline deal and decided to go with her attr.., er, amiable cousin Brett, who currently has 2 man points. Unfortunately, this means neither of them will be able to come to the party we're having on Saturday. That doesn't mean you can't come, though. Have fun, J! We'll miss you.

Meanwhile, Julie is preparing to go to KOSOVO on a missions trip with Biola over Christmas break. She is quite the world traveler and this trip will just add one more album on her facebook of which to be jealous.

Julie is co-leading the team of four and is just wrapping up

fundraising right now. It sounds like her group is fantastic and everything is falling into place--no surprises there. Go in peace, Julie!

This spate of traveling isn't really new, I guess. We're all splitting up across the country over Christmas. Amanda is visiting Gail to milk cows in good ol' Pennsylvania and Melissa is dropping in on Claire in New Hampshire. Cheryl heads up to Seattle and Kate east to Arizona. James Browning, our good Ohio friend, may even tag along with some Decadox members on an NYC trip.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We still have to plod through the last 2 weeks of the semester. Lord, grant us mercy.

The Piano Man

The guest pianist competition has officially ended, and Scott Munekawa has been officially declared the winner! Congratulations, Scott. And thank you to all who voted for Scott's rendition of Viva La Vida on our out-of-tune piano.

The next step will be for Scott to pit his piano-playing skills against the numerous pianists in our house.

Keep your eyes peeled for round two -- coming soon!

Wifelike: In a manner befitting a wife

The ladies of the house have decided to kick off a little competition. The goal of this competition is to see who is the most wifelike. This competition was created after some girls were doing many domestic activities and wearing cute aprons. We figured that it would be fun to spur on one another to care better for the house and each other through this competition.

As we have had some men be very chivalrous and kind to the women of the house, we also have decided to include a "Man" competition. Eligible men are those who creatively find ways to serve the women of the house. Their names will be written on the white board, and as they continue to do chivalrous activities, they may gain points in a similar way that the women of the house earn "Wife points".

The contest will commence today (11/22/08) and end with the announcing of our winner at our Christmas party on December 6th.

In order to win wife points, the person who acted in a wifely manner, must inform another lady of the house, and the lady who is informed MUST post the activity that was completed in the comments section of this post. For man points, the lady who had a man treat them in a gentlemanly manner must post the action within the comments section of the post.

On December 6th, we will count up the points and the winner of the wife and man points will receive a special prize.

In order to earn wife or man points, you must follow the rules. Negative points may be applied for bad behavior.
Rules:
Rules on wife points:

1. Must do something altruistic, not just your own chores (i.e. cooking for A GROUP, doing a chore that’s not your own, decorating the house, etc.)
   
   
2. One other house member must know about the deed and verify it. That other house member gives the actual point and writes it in a comment on the Wife Points blog entry.
   
   
3. The deed must have some relation to the house: must be made in the house, done for the house or done for a house member.
   
   
4. You can lose wife points for
1. Domestic violence (pushing, hitting or kicking a house member)
   
2. Leaving messes for other people to clean up
   
3. Rude acts: hogging the driveway, putting too many to go boxes in the main fridge
   
4. Leaving on too many lights/wasting energy


5. You may not award yourself points.

Rules on Man Points

1. Must do something altruistic toward a girl in the house or the house itself. Must be a sweet, out of the ordinary or “above and beyond.”
   
   
2. A house member may give the man a point. They must write this deed in the comments section of the Wife Points blog entry.
   
   
3. The deed must have some relation to the house or house member, but doesn’t need to be performed in the house.
   
   
4. You can lose man points for
1. Coming over uninvited
   
2. Harassing a member of the house or pulling a mean prank
   
3. Rude acts: sexual innuendos, excessive boy humor, dominating a conversation
   


5. You may not award yourself points, add or erase any points.

Feel free to read through the comments section to gain clever ideas of ways to be a servant in either wifelike or gentlemanly activities.

This is all just fun and games, however we do realize that the Lord calls us to serve and encourage one another:

Hebrews 10:24-25
"And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the the more as you see the day [of the Christmas party] drawing near." (Brackets added by Amanda)


Love,
The Decadox