Much Anticipated

I'm sure you have all been sitting on pins and needles waiting for an update. Okay, so really there are only five of you that actually read my blog and I'm sure this information will not be new to you. Here it goes anyway.

The camp staff attended our annual camp conference in Ohio. This year the conference was at Scioto Hills Christian Camp in southern Ohio. It was quite a drive out there, but since we each have different plan before or after the conference, we pretty much never car pool. I stopped at my parents' on the way out to break up the trip and spend extra time with them. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my drive to the camp, but I'll sum it up by saying after trying those directions, I bought myself a GPS for Christmas. I was ready to pull over, cry, sleep the night in my Jeep and try again in the morning even though I was only about 10 miles from the camp. Southern Ohio road in the back woods at 10:00 at night are not fun.

The conference was great! It is basically our chance to go to camp. The highlight was Monday, when we all went to the Creation Museum. It was amazing and I would recommend it to everyone! The second highlight was actually the office round table discussion. It was scheduled to last an hour, but since there were so many with questions, we stayed for almost three hours. It is neat to be one of the ones with more experience that can offer help and advice to the new ones.

After the conference, I headed to Terre Haute, Indiana to spend the weekend with friends from college. As always, our time is spent catching up and making new memories. I am thankful for friends that even though we live far away and see each other about once a year, we can pick up right where we left off. Of course, the laughter was great! We had some good news among our group...Mary Ann is engaged! Congrats Mary Ann!

Next, I headed to my parents' house for a week of much needed vacation/rest. Bekah met me there on Monday and it was great to spend some time with her as well. I got to cook most of the week. I love to cook, but don't take the time to do it for myself much...besides, my mom cleans up after me when I cook at her house.

There is a Japanese foreign exchange student at the Christian school at my parents' church, so they arranged for her to come for dinner one night. Bekah made a traditional Japanese meal and had a chance to get to know Miho. Since she is here to learn our culture, she was not allowed to converse with Bekah in Japanese, but Bekah could. She loved hearing Bekah speak and she loved the meal. I have never seen anyone so tiny eat so much! She does not understand Christianity, but I think it helped to have Bekah explain a few things in her own language. Pray for Miho's salvation.

Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed the update. I'm not feeling well, so I'm headed to bed, but since I promised the update, I thought I should do it first. I hope to write something before Thanksgiving, but if I don't get to it, I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. May we remember to give God the glory for all He has done for us.



The museum has a neat petting zoo. This is Grover.

James seemed to look so much like the monkey that I just had to get a picture.

Dan the rodeo man.

Becky, Mary Ann and Roxi - I bet they are glad I didn't put some of the other pictures on. :)

Paige met us for lunch near an outlet mall. It was good to see her too.

The stove and oven stopped working just before dinner was done. Praise the Lord, the microwave finished it off just in time.

This is how the Japanese say, "Cheese!"

I don't know how to spell it's name, but this was very good and I'm usually a cautious eater.

Coming soon to a blog near you...

I promise to post an update some time this weekend. Since I have last posed, I have gone to the camp conference in OH, had a weekend with college friends, spent a week of vacation at my parents', and been back to work for a week. I'll have to fill you in on all the fun.

By the way, the Betz family has decided to keep Stella. They are calling her Lucy and she is fitting in nicely with their family (minus one chewed up helicopter and some undergarments).

I Won!!!

So I previously told you to check out this site. Well, I won something!!! It's such a thrilling feeling to win something. It makes you feel special even though it is totally random. So I will be the proud owner of a Pledge Duster. My mom will laugh because she knows how much I have always hated dusting.

Goodbye

Well, I had to say a very difficult goodbye. After having Stella for a week, it was evident that I was not going to be able to juggle the ministry at camp and the responsibility of having a dog. She was a great dog and I loved my time with her, but I didn't want to have a divided heart. I'm very sad, but relieved at the same time.

The Betz family is trying her out this weekend to see if she would be a good fit for them. Pray for them as they make a decision.

Senior Pictures

I was sorting through some stuff and found some of my senior pictures. I thought I should share them with you. Remember that I was homeschooled, so they aren't the typical pictures.

She's Home!

Well, she's home and we're having a great time. She cried and barked the entire way home in the Jeep, but it was because she was so scared. We are going to work on the ride thing before we go to my parents' the first week of November since it's an eight hour drive. We are doing great and enjoying getting to know each other.

I think I wore her out. She was falling asleep standing up.

Funny Jr. Girls Story

We have a set of twins that attend our class, Danielle and Deidre. They are absolutely identical, so we have a hard time telling them apart. Stacey and I got together and prayed for our girls this last weekend. When I prayed, I asked that the Lord would help me tell the girls apart. I don't want to see them as "the twins," but as individuals with individual needs. They came in late on Wednesday and lo and behold, they had glasses! And the glasses were different!

I told the class that we pray for each girl and what I had specifically prayed about the twins. I was excited that God had answered my prayer. Well, Deidre raised her hand and said, "So basically you blinded us." We all laughed so hard!!! We have so much fun in our class!

Check out this site...

http://www.agiveawayaday.blogspot.com/

Why do I do this?

Yesterday, I had a moment of panic. Am I ready for a dog? Do I really want the responsibility? What if she barks too much and I have to get rid of her? What if my allergies freak out and I have to get rid of her? What if I can't train her? What if, what if, what if? I think you get my point.

I called Stacey, Bekah and my parents. They all really helped in calming me down, but here is my point. (Okay, this isn't my point here, but why call them instead of praying first...I did pray too, but not first...okay, now on to my real point.) Why do I freak out when I get an answer to prayer? I have wanted a dog for a long time. I get tired of going home to an empty house. I have always loved it when we had dogs growing up. I knew that with my housing/work situation it just wasn't possible. But I kept praying about it.

Well, lo and behold...God answered yes and very unexpectedly too. I went through this when I was offered the job here too. I was excited and really wanted it and prayed that Pastor Phil would call. Then the call came and it really freaked me out! Once again...all the "what if's."

Bottom line, it's worry and it's sin. God doesn't answer prayers and then leave us hanging. Stacey gave the application after our lesson last Wednesday night. She gave everyone a piece of paper and they had to find verses to battle against a particular temptation. Well, for my devos this morning, I did the assignment and had to write down worry as my temptation. I have never thought of myself as a person that struggled with this, but if I'm honest with myself I really do.

I'm thankful for God's Word. Not only does it help expose areas of our lives, but it also gives solutions. So maybe you need to take the challenge. What temptation are you battling? Write it down and find some scripture to help.

Not Very Nice...But Very Nice

(Don't worry...I'm not only going to post about my dog now.) So I was driving home from a fantastic weekend with Stacey and the kids a couple weeks ago, when I heard a loud CRACK! Yep, someone hit me...or so I thought. They also ran the red light at which I was sitting. Of course, my mind was running a bit behind and I didn't get the license plate or the make/model of the car.


I pulled over and called the police to get a report. I'm glad all they did was break my tail light. The police officer said that he thinks they threw a bottle at me. There were shards of glass above my wheel well and some liquid there too.


Well wonderful Shane Callison, who works at the camp, replaced it for me. I'm so glad I only had to buy the part and not pay for labor as well. Thanks, Shane! (He would never be caught dead reading my blog though, so it's a good thing that I told him thank you.)