:)

So, I find it really difficult to keep up with the whole blogging thing. I often find myself thinking-- "i really need to blog about that" as I experience different things in life. I don't mean like I have many life changing events occurring constantly or anything like that...but more so that I want to be able to highlight the things in my life that are memorable and worth stepping back to recount. So, based on that, for this blog I'm going to have to share some randomness of the past few weeks in my life and things that I have been thinking about, etc.

1. The Hititchi Trail Adventure: One Sunday evening a couple weeks ago, Alex, Steebo and I are eating at Francar's and decide to go fishing. Its getting to be the time when the sun will be setting soon...but we're adventurous and so head to fish anyways. We end up going to a place A-Flo knows of and has been to once. Well, to make a really long story short...we ended up hiking about 2 miles in and of course by the time we go to the river it was dark. We had quite an adventure hiking out in the pitch black with only my cell phone light as a guide. This evening is legendary already for the three of us. We had too much fun...i especially enjoyed carrying a walking stick around that was convertible into a javeling, spear, or bayonet, depending on what the sitaution neccesitated. Needless to say, we made it out alive and well...but I would like to give a shout out to everybody that we called to tell "please send a search party if we don't return".

2. Mike Kinnebrew/ Drew and Ellie concert: YoungLife held a concert to benefit campership for club a couple weeks ago and it featured some of my favorite artists. Mike's playing and passion always draw me in. He ended the night with my favorite song "Something Worth Saving" (mentioned a couple blogs ago) and it was just a truly amazing moment to be a part of. I know that song also means a lot to one of my friends that was there...and I feel like I was able to truly undersatnding its meaning as I sat there listening to it. It was beautiful. Drew and Ellie Holcomb with Nathan followed Mike and they are truly amazing. We joked about how every girl there wanted to be Ellie because she is amazing. I love Drew and Ellie and their music-- as well as their heart for high school students and YoungLife in particular.

3. Middle School Field Day: I was asked to play on the Faculty team for the legendary middle school field day student vs. faculty volleyball game. It was fun even though I pretty much sucked it up...I was glad to not to make the team lose. It was one of those things that really wasn't a big deal, but I was glad to be able to hang out with the middle schoolers and have a good time.

4. SharpTop Cove: This past weekend me, Laura, Alex, and three of our high school friends went to SharpTop Cove for family camp weekend to do Kid's club. Well, it turned out that they actually were short on work crew...so we ended up doing that too. So, we basically spent 2 and half days working our tails off at YoungLife camp and it was glorious. There is something about being on that mountaintop with a ton of people that you know are in the same boat as you...and on the same team in a way. I worked harder this weekend than I've worked in a while...and I would go back and do it all over again every weekend if I could. It's hard to explain that magic that occurs are you arrive onto a YoungLife property...but it is truly amazing. It's not that everything is perfect or that there is not stress or problems...but it seems that there we remember that we can give our problems to Jesus (which is the case all the time...but it just seems easier to remember on a mountain top i guess) and our stress is about getting things done, but not angry or frustrated. One of the little girls was playing tag and fell on the ground while we were there...I helped her get up and dust off her knees and then said to her "You know what the best thing about falling at YoungLife camp is?...even though your knee might hurt a little...you're still at YoungLife camp- it's beautiful and the most fun ever!"....and sweet Molly quickly agreed. All I can say is if you've never been to a YoungLife camp, you should totally remedy that if you ever have the opportunity. It will be the best time ever-- guaranteed!

5. Missional Community: My church (New City Church Downtown) has these small groups called missional communities. AFlo likes to refer to them as house church. It's basically an opportunity to get together ina smaller, more intimate environment with people in the church and start really living out the concept of community. We just started attending an MC and we had an informal dinner gathering last night. It was the frist time I've really felt at home in a church group outside of my family's church (currently in Augusta). We arrived early to fish in the pond where the MC is held (The Evans'--- wonderful people!), which is amazing becuase we love fishing and actually caught something. After fishing we had an awesom meal and then played ping pong and really just hung out and had a good time. It was a great experience. It makes me fired up for getting involved at New City.

So anyways, I know these are some random things...but they have been on my heart and on my mind lately. I'm thankful for the opportunities the Lord has given me lately to have fun and relax...it helps me keep my focus on Him...and with that, I know I can't go wrong.

A long week with a great ending....

So it's been a little bit since I've blogged (well a week or so) and I have to say its because I've been super super busy. The craziness all started last weekend when I went to see my good friend Mike Kinnebrew (see his page here) play at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta. I love Mike's music. It's a sweet kind of acoustic soulful sound. He has this one song "Something Worth Saving" that literally made me tear up as I heard it live. Listen to it, love it.

Anyways, after the show I drove the the tornados home to Augusta and got to go to the Masters on Saturday with my dad. The Augusta National is beautiful and I really appreciate my dad being willing to take me as his golf watching partner.

So then it was Easter family fun times and I came back to Macon to a slammed week full of all kinds of meetings, stressful stuff, YoungLife and getting ready for Prom. Prom at FPD (where I work) is a huge deal with leadout, a pretty intsense decorations/set-up, party buses, a great band, and dresses worth more money than most of my clothing costs all put together. I was so stressed leading up to it because part of my job is to make sure it happens and everything goes okay. I know that prom is so important to these highschoolers, so I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for them. Prom is an important milestone in life...and no matter how insignficant it may seem as you look back on it after 10 years, it is incredibly important for a junior or senior in high school. I really hope the kids had fun. I had a blast just watching them have fun and act crazy. I loved it because it was great to watch my highschool friends having some good, clean fun. Sure the dancing was a little sketch at times, but in general the kids were just out there having a blast. It reminded me of my favorite YL verse John 10:10 where Jesus says "I have come so that you might have life, more and better life than you have ever dreamed of" (or something like that--- that's the Amy Kenney Message Paraphrase for ya!). Last night, I witnessed kids living life and having fun with it. I've been thinking a lot about where Jesus would be in interaction with my highschool friends...and I have to say, I think he would have been right up there on stage with Perry Lee dancing with the band....or maybe with the group of some of my favorites running up the stairs to embarass me and dance all around me as I tried to stay out of the way. It was just such a joy to see those kids having such a great time and living life. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be there with them.

Isaiah (the book not the baby)

So I'm at work so blogging is not really okay but I just wanted to share a quick note. I've started trying to read through the book of Isaiah lately. I chose Isaiah for a few reasons--- I mean, the fact that my nephew is named after this prophet is definitely one of them, in addition to the fact that I've never really read it but lately I've heard many passages from it used in various sermons. Also, I know the book is full of God's promises...and I feel like it would be good for me to focus on his promises more. So anyways, today I read chapter 2 (just started yesterday) and the first time I read it I was a little like "ouch" because its just a harsh chapter. But then when I went back and read it again, I was able to find quite a few very uplifting things among the warnings that Isaiah speaks of. Specifically verses 3-5:

...Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, the he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths...
and the shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into purning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jackob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord...

I think those are some good things to remember. And i also think its important in life to go back and think things through to find direction of God in them. It was easy for me to find this to be a harsh chapter, but I found the true hope in the chapter when I went back and looked through it again.

Anyways, back to work....

My life is full of crazy activities

My life is full of many different unique activities I feel like. I mean, maybe its not so unique...but certainly full of activities.

Saturday began with some yardwork and fun with my dad and then getting stuff ready for the church easter egg hunt with my mom. My mom teaches the 3-4 year old Sunday School class at my church in Augusta (The Quest). The way the building the facilities are structured, my mom's class is actually a few doors down from the actual worship space. So,she was talking about the issue of walking 10-20 preschool kids down the sidewalk and how it is somewhat unsafe. Being the fan of the Gosselin family that I am, I suggested we make a Jon and Kate Plus 8 style walking rope. So, Saturday I also had the big project of getting materials for and putting together this rope. Mom said it worked great and her kids all stayed attached. If you don't know what I'm talking about by the way, you should probably be watching Jon and Kate plus 8 more....it's a great show. So anyways, Saturday evening my dad grilled steaks and I got to hang out and play with the boys a little more before we left. Here's a couple pics from playing with them on the deck.





After fun times at home I headed back to Macon where I met up with Steebo and Melissa at El Som and then Steebo and I headed to the DubDub to listen to a band. The band was great and we hung out with these fun "real adult" guys that were cracking us up. Those guys had some classy shoes on.

Sunday started with a great time at church--- which Steebo slept through even though I called to wake him up and had a 2 minute conversation with him--- where Alex and I met Dr. Paul and his wife Alesia who we are going to attend their missional community group for the first time tomorrow. We're excited about that. Our church has been talking a lot about living in community lately, so it seemed logical that we should get involved.

Sunday afternoon was glorious because we decided to go fishing. I had to run by Prom workshop first, which was completley an epic fail since we couldn't unlock the warehouse door. But anyways-- back to fishing. I recently found out that FPD actually owns half of a lake. This is probably the third or fourth time I've been fishing there. Alex, Steebo and I went fishing and it was a trip. In fact, hanging out with them always keeps me laughing. They're adventurous...and therefore make me more fun :). We ended up climbing onto this ridiculously broken and moss covered "used to be a dock but is currently jsut some boards nailed very loosely together". It was crazy. Oh, and we lost about 10- 12 lures between the 3 of us. Ridic. There is something in that lake that eats lures.



After fishing, we took our dirty selves to the Amstar to see Fast and Furious which was Brilliantly Amazing and made me want to drive fast and marry Paul Walker. Of course we were hungry after the movie so we went to our typical happy place-- the DubDub for some dindin (yes I just said that-- that one was for you Laura). As if we had not had enough fun in all that we then went to Barnes and Noble where Alex and I sat in the addiction/recovery section (ironic--- hopefully not) which is frighteningly next to the Sexuality section and read through a couple different books (from the Ad/Rec section!) that we thought were interesting. Actually we more so analyzed whether we thought the people that wrote the books had any clue what they were talking about. I mean, so many doctors and things have written book after book about all kinds of issues--- yet so much of what they write seems so out there to me. I also feel like with a lot of the whole addiction/recovery genre is more so about experience and understanding than head knowledge. The best books to read about any of that kind of stuff to me are memoirs and other books written by people who have experienced the various issues. But there's my soap box on that.

Then of course yesterday was back to work as usual. Luckily we did have club last night (so us leaders were able to stay out of trouble). For club we played kickball....in the 3 degree weather. I prefer to refer to it as Arctic Kickball because it was freezing....like ridiculously. It was still fun though and I got to see some kids that I hadn't seen since before Spring Break so that was good. Oh, and before club me and A-Flo ate CFA with Molly. I was excited because I got her this awesome elephant made out of diet coke cans during the Cherry Blossom Festival. 2 of Molly's favorite things are elephants and diet coke so it was pretty much the ideal combo. After club a bunch of us went to Starbucks and then Steebo and I hit up the DubDub b/c I was hungry (count it--- 3 days in a row at the dubdub).

So, that's probably more detail than you'll ever get out of a blog from me...but it's been an eventful 3 days...what can I say? Looking back on it all....I have to say, I have a great family and great friends (both my age and in hs!)....and I love it.

I love Chuck E. Cheese!

So I had today off from work. Its Spring Break at the school still so I just got one day off. Let me tell you working all the time really makes you appreciate any days off. My phone rang at about 9 a.m. with somebody calling about a work question. That's kinda my luck--- have a day off but then get a call that wakes you up. So i decided to get up and go get some breakfast at Panera. I used to go to Panera all the time on Saturday or Sunday mornings so I brough a couple books along and left. As I was g-chatting with Alex about my day off, I was trying to decide what to do...and I randomly remembered that my mom was going to be helping with my twin nephews, Andrew and Tyler, this weekend because my sister-in-law and neices were out of town.

I ended up decided to drive home to Augusta and take the boys to Church E. Cheese. Let me just say...it was definitely the best decision I could make! By the time I got to my house the boys were just itching to get going...they were so cute! Its fun when they are just so excited. We went to Chuck E. Cheese and spent about 70 coins and played in the toddler play area and just ran around and danced and had a great time. They are at just an adorable age. And I love to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese--- I know for some people Chuck E. is like a nightmare-- with screaming chilren and crazy games and huge rat walking around, but it has always been one of my favorite things to take my neices and nephews to Chuck E. Cheese. Back in the day when Morgan was like the only one that could go I would randomly take her. It really makes me happy to just take the kids and play with them. They're so easy to please. In fact, for the rest of the days the boys were just kind of stuck on me...wanting to follow me around and sit with me and stuff. I told my mom, "well, we know the way to Drew and Ty's hearts...it's just to take them to Chuck E. Cheese". I appreciate the opportunity to hang out with them.

Here are a couple pics from our fun:

So this is what happens when you take a two year old to Chuck E. Cheese....Andrew was "playing skeeball" (which means throwing the ball up the ramp so it would slide back down to him) and somehow threw the ball so that it hit the cup with like 90 coins in it and they of course went flying in 90 different directions. I couldn't help but laugh because it was hilarious.

This is boys playing a pretty tough racing game...it came down to the last couple seconds but I think TyTy ended up pulling out the victory!

This one cracks me up because Drew is doin some legit dance moves. I knows its blurry and I really wished I had videotaped him but you can still get the point from the pic.

This is my boy TyTy dominating the car game. Drew was content to just sit and let Ty take the wheel and I gotta be honest-- Tyler was pretty good at driving the "Funny Car".

On another happy note I just got off the phone with one of my highschoolers and that brightened my day. She was cracking me up with her Spring Break shenanigans. I'm gonna be honest...this week has definitely been pretty dull and kinda sad without all my highschool friends and the excitement they bring to my life...maybe that sounds pathetic...but I'm okay with it. I love them...what can I say?!

On that note...I'm going to bed.