August 2012

What a whirlwind of a month!  Can it really be the last day in August?  So much has happened in the last month!  I have been incredibly mobile.  I'm finding this to be a theme of my 20's.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hopefully, by this time next year, I will be staying in one place for a while.  So much has happened in the blur of 4 weeks.  Mostly it was my final weeks at camp, 1 week at home, and the past 2 at school.

Low:

·         I had to leave camp.  I didn't cry last year, but this year, the tears streamed.  I was also sick my last day.

·         Couldn't eat anything at The Skinny Dip because of said sickness.

·         My poor car had to spend 2 days in the shop. 

·         The whole mice incident at LAKESIDE.  That was the only thing that I hated about staying up there, granted that it was mostly my fault...

·         I shot milk out my nose during a chugging contest with Alison.

·         I thought it would be cool to play Banana on a trip to LAX with Brock.  Clearly, it ended well.

·         After said trip to LAX, I managed to leave my Wal-Mart stuff in Brock's truck.  He headed back to Texas that night.  Glad you enjoyed my Oreos.

·         Ruby knew when I was leaving for school.  She missed me a lot and it was hard to leave her again.

·         The noise of the Horseshoe that begins rather early.  Thank you, Bartlett Construction Crew...

High:

·         My grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary!  :)

·         My last weeks at camp were incredible and fun and so many other adjectives!

·         I got to ride the horses with Dad and without a helmet!  I missed that so much over the summer.

·         Moving to school was actually a great experience.  I remembered my ID this year and the only thing I forgot was a filter for my Brita pitcher!  The girls from upstairs helped me move in and I had a great weekend hanging out with friends from camp and going to Scratch and stuff.

·         4-way-Skype was achieved with my best friends from camp!  :)

·         Pray! Shirt Friday!

·         I got 3 mini-snow globes for my collection!  One from Lu from Yellowstone, one from Kentucky, and one from Daytona Beach, both from Bryan and Sonya.

·         I have an amazing schedule that allows for lots of free time and I love my classes.  October might sound different because that is when I will actually get busy.

·         IT'S MY LAST SEMESTER!  It's crazy and almost hard to believe that next semester I will be living with the Abrahamson's and completing my student teaching!

·         Meeting up with Rose for a 4 Queens adventure, and Aaron on his way back to Texas for a Scratch adventure.  Could my life get any sweeter?  :)

·         Hanging out at Lu's was quite the adventure.  Who knew people decorated their flower beds with a giant T-Rex?!

·         I was able to see one of my campers from the first week of camp!  She was surprised to say the least!  Her brother was in Connor's cabin, so we made a short video to send to him!

·         BASIC started up again, and with that starts small-group Bible Study!  I'm back with Jenny for one last semester and it is going to be awesome!  We started on Tuesday and spent our time getting to know each other and what we will be studying.  We're doing the book/DVD series of The Mingling of Souls.  It's all about relationships and not just the guy/girl kind.

·         God has answered so many prayers this month about so many things.  I'll start writing about some of those and share a new one every Friday as part of the Pray! Shirt Friday movement.  Not only has He answered many, but I can see the beginnings of answers to prayer unfolding. 

August, you have been good!  You always seem to bring a lot of good with the last fun weeks of camp, home, and the start of school.  This is my last August at UNI, and it is wonderful!  God has really been on the move in my life this month and it has been extraordinary to move with him.  I want to continue to feel myself stretching and growing in my faith like I have felt in the past month.  September's looking good too!  :)

"If you're not dead, you're not done."

Pray! Shirt Friday

I honestly can't pinpoint that exact moment when we decided to do the whole Pray! shirt thing.  I remember noticing Lu's Sing! and Read. shirts and wanting one.  It was a joint idea to do one for fun with the word Pray!  She said we only needed 6 people to get cheaper shirts.  It was Young Teen 2 and the girls from my youth group were at camp.  They all wanted one, plus me, Lu, Alison, and then I began asking the other staff.  By the end of ordering, we ended up getting close to 60 shirts.  Never did I expect it to get that big.

Then I had to wait to get mine.  Naturally, Lu got all the shirts a few hours after I left camp for the summer.  Yep, that's right, the ringleader to this whole adventure had to wait months and months before finally getting her own Pray! shirt.  What's worse is when Lu came to visit me for my birthday, she managed to forget the 8 shirts that I needed.  Finally, I received a package with my shirt along with the girls' shirts and the one I got Whit for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure I was doing the jumping-up-and-down-extremely-excitedly dance!  :)

I wore my shirt off and on throughout the months and made sure that I had it packed whenever I was headed back to camp.  Last year, I tried to start Orange Tuesdays, but that didn't stick that well.  This summer, I began to see very early on the staff who brought back their Pray! shirts.  I made the executive decision to have Pray! shirt Fridays and began to spread the word.  It was great to get comments and people wanting their own.

Honestly, Alison and I had every intention of doing another shirt this year.  We debated for a while whether we should do another order of Pray! shirts, or choose another word.  We had this timeline mapped out of when we wanted to have the order done  and everything.  We were just stuck on the word.  Eventually, time got away from us as it seems to very easily when you're at camp.  Time slipped away and we never got an order.  I thought that the whole Pray! shirt thing would just be a special memory from Summer '11.  Little did I know there was a surprise coming.

All of a sudden, it was my last Friday at camp, and naturally, I was wearing my "Friday outfit" that consisted of my Pray! shirt, pink shorts,  and my Zebra headband.  We had taken another group picture with all of us in our shirts earlier that day.  Stacy Bender comes up to Lu and I as we're chatting on the Lodge lawn.  She expressed great interest in the shirts and we filled her in.  She asked where she could get them, and I sheepishly explained about the whole adventure this summer.  She jumped into this whole idea of getting more shirts ordered and starting a business and selling them all over.  My mind was blown!  She said she would take care of it all since she was a little more free than 2 upperclassmen in college.  We joyfully said that sounded like a fantastic idea and looked to hear more from her soon.

Honestly, I was thinking, "Oh, it'll be a little while before we really see anything with this idea."  My thought was Stacy having to go through mounds of paperwork to get a business plan written, business created, and all other aspects that come with running a business.  Again, little did I know there was a surprise coming.

I was not expecting the message that came just 2 days later.  Stacy said that her family had been at work all weekend and had just about everything taken care of.  SERIOUSLY?  Is this really happening?  I was overjoyed with the fact that a couple of dollars from each shirt would be going back to the place where this idea got started - VCBC.  After reading this message, I sat there with happy tears welling in my eyes.  "Is this really happening, Lord?  Am I really involved in something that is getting this big?  REALLY?!"  It was a lot to take in, but in a good way, ya know?  :)

The same day Lu and I got another message saying the site was live and that the ability to buy shirts was almost ready.  REALLY?  Throughout the days, Stacy continued to message us with updates and encouraged us to spread the word. 

It has been just over 2 weeks since this idea got planted.  It is still so stinking incredible to think that this seemingly silly idea to make a shirt for the VCBC staff of Summer '11 is going so far as a business and selling shirts like crazy.

This shirt isn't just for fun, though.  The idea for the shirts stinks if that's the only reason.  It's more about remembering to pray and to keep the lines of communication open between ourselves and our Heavenly Father.  It's about encouraging others to pray, and keeping yourself open as a possible witness to others who don't know Christ.  I'm excited to wear my Pray! shirt every Friday, but I'm also excited to spend time in prayer EVERYDAY.

So, whatcha waiting on?

PRAY!

-Katie

My Morning Prayer

Today in church we were given a card with a morning prayer on it that I thought I would share with everyone.


God, this is a new day.  I freshly commit myself to the role you have invited me to play, as you are building your church in this world.  I am awestruck again today that you include me in this grand life-giving, world-transforming endeavor.  So today I joyfully offer you:

MY LOVE

MY HEART

MY TALENTS

MY ENERGY

MY CREATIVITY

MY FAITHFULNESS

MY RESOURCES

AND MY GRATITUDE

I commit all of myself to the role you have assigned me in the building of your church so that it may thrive in this world.  And I will "bring it" today.  I will bring my best.  You deserve it.  Your church deserves it.  It is the Hope of the World.

4 Queens & Scratch

Everyone should know by this point that two of my big weaknesses in Cedar Falls are 4 Queens, the ice cream place, and Scratch, the local cupcakery.  I go too often and love it!  Don't worry though, this blog is so much more than my love for sweets.  This blog is more about the people who I've gone with to enjoy these places the last few days!  :)

On Thursday, I met up with my friend Rose at 4 Queens.  We have been friends since the summer of 2010 when I worked for CEF.  Rose was my first ever room mate and I will never forget coming into the room that we would share and finding her stuff there already with a note on my bed saying that she was excited to meet me and looking forward to the week ahead.

We've been able to keep in touch with her living in Waterloo, it has made things easy on this temporary Cedar Falls girl.  We've met up for ice cream, cupcakes, and many other adventures.  During the summer, she's been a faithful pen pal for my weeks at camp and her weeks of doing 5-Day Club.  She's such an encouragement to me and to many others!  It is always so good to share with each other about camp and clubs, and life in general.  It's so exciting to see how far we've come in the past couple years, and exciting to think about where we'll be in the future!

Yesterday after class, I ate lunch with Dakota and then went to grab a couple of Scratch cupcakes before heading to Lu's house for the afternoon.  I'm best friends with her dog already!  :)

We spent the afternoon driving around Ackley and seeing the sights and feeding the ducks...

and checking out some brilliant yard decorations...

...yes, that is a T-Rex...

We also stopped by her momma's kindergarten classroom.  What a hoot!  We sang songs and fit right in with those little children!  The girls all thought we were great and we did quite literally have a lot of fun!  :)  We also ate too many Cinderella cookies as we reminisced over the past 2 summers.

When I got back, I met up with Jay, Jani, Nathan, Dakota, and Kyle for one eventful evening!  Supper and then sitting on the lawn laughing and talking before heading to 4 Queens where we continued to be ridiculous.  

Today brings another trip to Scratch as Aaron rolls through on his way back to Texas.  What adventures will await all of us VCBCer's as we join up again today?

I've had Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 on my mind a lot the past couple of weeks:

⁹ 

Two are better than one,

    because they have a good return for their labor:

¹⁰ 

If either of them falls down,

    one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

    and has no one to help them up.

¹¹ 

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

    But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² 

Though one may be overpowered,

    two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

My life lately (1)

Well, it has been over a week since I left camp and let me tell you, I miss that place like CRAZY!  It has been one crazy busy week and a half coming from camp, unpacking, laundry, repacking, and moving up to school.  I continue to realize what a different person I am this year compared to when I came up last year.  Camp changed me, both years.

Last week, I spent a lot of time on the couch just being lazy, and I loved it!  My body needed some downtime after 10 weeks of working hard.  I even took a 2 hour nap one day!  My car got some much needed PTL love-it took 2 days!  Thank you Brent and the rest of the guys for taking care of my Baby for me!  I appreciate all that you do!

I spent some much needed time with my pup, Ruby!  She missed me and for the first couple of days she would stick so close that I couldn't walk anywhere without her nose right between my knees!

I also got to see my big baby, Cinnamon!  She's pregnant, so I will have a little Tito or Spinelli in December! :)

We also had a night of fishing when my little shadow came and spent the night!  We had a pretty good time.  I almost fell off a log into the pond and Alex went to cast and wound up with the lure in the tree...

Sadly, Friday came all too quickly and it was time for me to head back to Cedar Falls.  I honestly didn't want to come back.  I really struggled with being up here last year.  I felt like I was spinning my wheels, I spent a lot of time by myself, and I hated being in the city.  I prayed a lot about my final semester up here.  While I am still ready to be done, I've had an INCREDIBLE move-in weekend and a great start to classes.  When I pulled into the Horseshoe, I was greeted by most of the girls from the second floor.  They helped me move in and I had my car unloaded in less than 10 minutes!  That was only the beginning to a great welcome!  After my parents took me out to lunch, Scratch, and said good-bye, I got my room in order.  I left my Lazy Boy at home this year and decided to de-loft my bed.  Why did I not make this decision last year?!  I stinkin' love my room!  It's kind of a grown-up senior version of a dorm room.  I LOVE MY ROOM!  Ze Hole looks so much different than last year, but it's only mine for the semester.  Have I mentioned that this is my last semester?!  The rest of the weekend was spent with the girls in 25E and Dakota.  All of us camp friends got together and spent a couple hours together as well.

Classes started yesterday.  Until October 1, I only have one hour worth of class on Monday and Friday!  This is going to give me so much time for TAG time and walks around campus!  The other days aren't bad either.  I'm a senior after all, so why should my last semester be crazy hard?  I am taking Advanced American Sign Language.  I was a little nervous for the first day because I haven't taken Intro since the spring of '11.  Everyone was as rusty as I am, but as my teacher began to sign, it all started flooding back.  I think I'll have a lot of fun!

Last night was wonderful!  I had a 4 way Skype conversation with my best friends from camp!  Lu, Alison, Autumn, and I were all able to laugh, talk, and type about things that had been happening lately.  Autumn was quiet for a while because she didn't know what to say because she was so happy!  I love my friends!  :)

Camp overflowed into the rest of my life last year, but this year it's really gushing out.  I can feel myself reacting to situations in such a different more God filled way than ever before.  He's really been working on my heart throughout the summer, and I know He has a lot to teach me this semester before I become a real big kid.  I'm excited to see the opportunities that will be given to me, the people that I will meet along the way, the people who will impact my life in some way, and the person that I will become because of it all.  I only know the area for where I will be student teaching, not the schools just yet.  The interviews for that will start soon.  I have to take a HUG+E test towards the end of the semester.  I have Phase 2 again, which I am really excited about!  I also don't know where I want to go after graduation.  I'm still praying about the possibility of teaching in a children's hospital, but I haven't looked into anything yet.

Here's to my last real semester as a UNI panther!  :)

60, but more like 57

Today is the day!  Grandpa & Grandma are celebrating 60 years of marriage!  Grammy will joke and tell you it's really more like 57 because Gramps was in Korea for a while, but it's 60 none the less.  I love those 2 an awful lot.

These 2 have given me a strong, committed marriage to look up to all my life.  They've laughed through so much, and together have taught me so many things.  They joke with each other, joke with me, always ask me when I'm going to bring somebody home for them to meet, show me things from their past, mix up all the grand kids'  names, and listen to me babble on about my life.  Their house has always been open for friends and family, but when friends and family are unable to come to them, Gramps & Grammy go to them bearing food and cheer.  They always look out for their neighbors, and typically, Gramps will talk for long lengths of time to Army buddies and relatives.

I love their predictability.  Every year Grammy says that if her sweet corn doesn't do well that she won't do it the coming year.  Every year there has been sweet corn no matter what the year before brought.  It's a huge surprise if she sleeps past 6 in the morning...even on a vacation!  Grammy always makes me something to take back to school or camp.  Everyone enjoys her Snot Bars, even if she doesn't enjoy them being called that.  Gramps & I always have the typical surfacy phone conversations before handing the phone to Grammy.  Don't worry, we do talk, we're just not phone people.  Gramps is always ready to get his fingers in the cookie dough, get a slice of that famous white cake that won him over, or a bowl full of homemade ice cream.  If you ever see him with his hat on backwards, he's just trying to remember something.

They are still going strong, and I hope they keep going for a while.  I love them so much and am so thankful for having them in my life, and just a few minutes away!  Happy Anniversary, Grandpa & Grandma!  :)

Code Names and Shield Making

My last week at camp for the summer is over and done with and I am writing this blog from home!!  :)  I love camp, but after 10 weeks there, it's good to be home!  Junior 3 was so much fun!  I had 8 girls that were wild and crazy, full of laughter and love, and always kept me on my toes.  I helped with the shield making rotation, and had a free time assignment of sidewalk chalk art on Thursday.  I had a great last week again!

My girls were all friends already, and I was even able to meet up with 2 of my campers from last year.  I did have my co-counselor living with me until Monday.  Camie came to talk to me about my need for Sadie because there was another counselor who needed more from her co-counselor than a wrangler could give.  Yes, this is how short staffed we were that wranglers were co-counselors.  I said that my girls were great and that if Sadie was needed elsewhere, that would be fine.  The girls were a little heartbroken, but still hung out with Sadie throughout the week.  We then got Brooke!  The girls truly enjoyed her as well, even if she couldn't hang out with them as much.

Sadie & I

Brooke & I

We had 2 amazing speakers this week.  Grandpa John talked about God being on the thrones of our lives, and had a good illustration about reading a love letter from someone special and reading the Bible.  He also had a key word for the night that every time it was said, we would have to yell, "ALL RIGHT!  YEAH!  BOOM!  UGH!"  I thought he was never going to get through the first chapel because he said the key word so many times.  Miss Monie was the other great speaker.  She went through parts of the story of Joshua and honed in on Psalm 119:18.

My girls were more the young teen side of junior camp, so they were noticing the boys a lot.  They had code names for various staff.  We had Cheeky Boy, Salt & Pepper Guy, Biker Dude, and others.  It was interesting...

Shield making was new territory to me.  We started with the Wordless Book and then talked about colors and symbols and what they represent.  We then got down to painting a shield.  Eden and I did too!  :)

This was sadly my last week to host Dodge ball for the girl event.  I have loved doing it almost every week.  Standing up on a chair with the microphone singing and dancing, explaining the games, and sometimes making up rules has been so much fun!  :)

Except that this week, I was given the camcorder, and it got knocked out of my hand and broke.

One thing I started doing this week was singing to my girls when the lights went out.  I so wish I would have started doing it last year.  I sang the chorus to some of my favorite hymns and classic Bible School songs that I loved.  I also read the girls You Are Special by Max Lucado and told them of that moment that I realized I was beautiful because I had Christ in me.

Sidewalk chalk art day was so much fun!  I really got into it!  :)

Friday was really encouraging.  I spent a lot of time with my girls and we had a lot of fun in the Craft Room.  During chapel that night, we had the victory celebration.  There were only boys who stood up saying that they had decided for the first times to give their lives to Christ.  Please pray that these young men would raise up into spiritual leaders in the future.  That night, instead of buying Skittles, we used Sour Patch Kids and every color represents something.  Red is something you love about God.  Yellow was a high of the week.  Green was something you learned.  Orange was your favorite character/verse/passage from the Bible.  It was really great to have all the girls share.

It was hard to say good bye to these great girls, but through it all, I just kept on smiling!  :)

Stand In

So, this blog is a little late...it was pretty busy this weekend as it was my last full weekend at camp.  Last week, I was the stand in Craft Room Facilitator!  This was my position last year during Family 3, so a lot of the crafty moms remembered me.  I loved interacting with the families and getting to know a lot of the kids and parents.

I ended up staying in Lakeside with Alison, Callie, Mira, and Bethany.  It was way more interesting in its own way than last time.  Upside was that it was cooler.  Downside...Skittles in my bag found by the mice...  Also, it rained and the steps are dirt.  I made up a silly song about going down the hill side instead of the step side and overheard laughter from the lake one night when I was singing it at the top of my lungs.  It was still a lot of fun, and I got to drive the Wilderness van!  :)

I had dishes a couple of times, and it was a good change of pace because I don't remember the last time I did them at camp.  I also had good crews to work with.  I even crashed the Girl Scout Horsemanship's movie in the barn.  Luke said he's never inviting me back...

The McCauley boys coordinated a crick stompin' adventure with Connor sporting my boots.  HILARIOUS to watch!

Some amazing people worked with me in the Craft Room this week.  I worked with Callie, Hannah, and Heather.  We had some really good times in the morning!

Candi came in one day and cleaned all the paintbrushes, just because she saw that it needed done.  Alison did the same thing another day and spent a good couple of hours fixing a mess of parachord so it would be easier to work with.  Ryan fixed the parachord so it was a better display and easier to get at.  Heather sat with me during free time.  God had truly blessed me with the people who I work with.

The speaker for the week spent morning chapels on Philippians.  WOW!  The main theme of the sessions was how counter-cultural Christianity is.  We're called to be of one spirit as the world say individualism.  It was a really good week of sessions.

I had two of the best visitors on Friday!!  Emily and Nathan stopped by and it was so good to catch up with Emily and play with Nathan.  I miss them and Matt dearly and don't see them often enough.

It was a wonderful week full of families, crafts, God, songs, rain, and dishes.  Prayer requests include soft hearts for the junior campers who are here.  There is lots of homesickness this week already.  Also, there will be A LOT of people leaving this weekend, so prayers for sufficient staff would be appreciated too.  I'm in my last few days of work, so prayers that thoughts of home would stay at bay and that I could continue to focus on my campers.

July 2012

It's already August?  Seriously??  I feel like the 4th of July was yesterday!  It has been one crazy, busy month filled with challenges, fun, laughter, adventures of a lifetime, and lots of lessons.  God is so good all the time and so much this month has proved just that.

Low:

• I have been trying to kick my first cold of the summer for about a week and a half.  I don't like it.
• Staff members are beginning to make their ways back home and I don't want them to leave yet.
• I found that a mouse had gotten into a bag of Skittles that I had forgotten in my suitcase last night.
• Grammy was going through some things medically, and I wasn't at home to be with her which made it hard, but she is doing better!
• I haven't seen Whit in a couple of months and I miss her dearly, but on the upside, she's in Africa spreading the Gospel!

High:

• IT RAINED!!!  :)

• I had an amazing family for Family 1, a great group of girls for Young Teen 2, a chance to recharge during Family 2, a great group of girls for Horsemanship Level 2, and the start to an amazing week as Craft Room Facilitator for Family 3!
• I'm staying in Lakeside for the second time this month and with the sweet relief that it is cooler!  :)
• My parents and Alex visited over a weekend after Young Teen 2 and we went to Cabela's and met up with some other staff for supper and had a great recharge weekend.
• Lookout Point.

• God has really been working in my heart this month on the whole bitterness thing.  I've been realizing that I've been holding a lot of bitterness towards certain people in my life and I've really been working through that this month.  It takes a lot of humble pie eating, but I'll take it.
• I love being able to serve here.  I love being able to interact with so many people and hold wholesome conversations about God, life, and everything under the sun.

This month has been crazy and as my time at VCBC winds down for the summer, I'll hold these memories in my heart for a long, long time.  God is so BIG.  God is so MIGHTY.