October 2012

Can it really be Halloween already?  Am I really 22?  This month has FLOWN by and we are on the verge of November, people!  This month has been FANTASTIC with a few bumps like every other month.

Low:

• Right away on the 1st, I started my Phase 2.  The only downside was the HUG+E adjustment to an early bedtime with an early rising to follow.  I'm finally on a better schedule and now I go to bed super early and get called a grandma.  No big.
• The state decided to change/add to some rules for lincensure and now I have to take 2 Praxis 2 tests instead of one.  EXPENSIVE!  These are both 2 1/2 hours long, and not fun at all.  Not looking forward to actually taking these things...
• For 2 weeks of this month, I was driving my father's car because mine needed lots of love.  I really need my baby to last just a little while longer.  It needs to get me through student teaching and a bit longer if possible!
• Naturally, on my birthday I would break a contact.  Because I don't wear disposables, I had to order a new one and get it sent to me.  All I have are my crooked glasses that practically fall off my face.  Can't wait until my appointment over break!
• I had everything for teaching today EXCEPT the lesson plan and the main activity.  Yep, this Wednesday felt more like a Monday.  Luckily, my mentor teacher is AWESOME and was a tremendous help and I got through.  Note to self, don't forget that sort of thing again!

High:

• My Phase 2 experience has been WONDERFUL!  I absolutely love what I am doing and I really enjoy teaching at the junior high level.  My students are a blast and I have a wonderful mentor teacher.  Last week, I got to teach the students how to make Blueberry pancakes!  :)
• Momma & I hit up the World's Largest Garage Sale and I came back with quite the load of books!  :)

• My friend, Rach came back into town for the night and we got all the girls together for a night at Carlos o' Kelly's!  Such a wonderful time with some wonderful ladies!  :)

• I got to go home for 2 amazing weekends!  I love going home!  It's the best!  :)  One night involved a football game.  The other weekend was harvest and my birthday!  :)
• Camp.  Love camp, especially when it is 4 State time!  :)  Celebration of October birthdays also took place with Tums, Alison, and I!  What fun it was!

• Level 3 was last week.  What an exhausting, exciting week!  I learned so much and it was completely wonderful!  The best I ate all week was conference nights when there was food brought in.  :)
• My birthday was wonderful!  I got to hang out with my family and friends and was reunited with my bestie for the afternoon!  Love her!  :)

• I SCORED REALLY WELL ON A PRAXIS!!!  One down, one left!  :)

Seriously, this has been a wonderful month and I am only 5 1/2 weeks from graduation!!  :)  Life is so good, and I am so thankful!

This would probably have to be my favorite picture of the month!  :)

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

-Ephesians 3:12

Pre-birthday Pandemonium

I had been looking forward to 4 State since the summer ended, and it completely lived up to expectations!  Thursday I did send a message to Andrew saying that I had a teacher bedtime.  :)

Jani was the driver of this adventure and it was so much fun!  Jay and I tried hard to catch a picture of an Elect Hildebrandt sign with no luck.  Naturally, on the way out of town we had to make a Scratch stop!  :)

When we got there I was jumping up and down running around mostly out of excitement and a little because it had been a long ride and I really had to go to the bathroom.  It was so good to start running into my camp friends.  I quickly ate and headed to the Lodge to help register.  When Lu arrived, it was chaos!  She practically knocked me out of my chair.  When Autumn got there, we got our birthday presents!  :)

God has truly given me some awesome friends through Village Creek Bible Camp!  :)

Since our dear friend, Alison, couldn't come, we had a couple of pictures of her floating around doing camp things.  It was almost like she was there!  I drank out of my favorite mug and she drank out of hers!  :)

Gwen came and we redid a picture that we took last year, except this year, it was a Pray! shirt stack!  :)

That night we played a game called Passport.  The #1 thing I learned about volunteering for this game is to not volunteer to be the first stamp that people needed.  I was mobbed and literally PINNED against the wall until I stamped close to 200 pieces of paper.  My poor horse stamp nearly ran out of ink!  Shortly after worship, I called it a night.  Really, I didn't get to sleep until around 11:30, but it was good to be back at camp!

Saturday I had bathrooms right away at 7:30.  What an adventure!  I worked with a great crew who made cleaning those bathrooms used by lots of teens quite a bit of fun!  I was able to have a TAG time in between that and the start of my kitchen/servery shift.  It was such a stinking beautiful fall day to sit in a swing overlooking camp and breath in the calm chill of the day.  I love working in the servery!  It is so much fun and I love being able to connect with some of the campers through quick conversation as they go through the line.  After the lunch rush, and I quite literally mean rush, Debbi sent me to my kitchen home-the bakery nook.  I love that little corner!  :)  I got to make nearly 150 Snickerdoodles before leaving for the Craft Room.  It felt good to be back in the "Vince" shirt!  This is the Craft Room Facilitator shirt that used to be Lu's dad's shirt when he worked at John Deere.  

I had a little break and I wandered for a little bit and ended up at the Outdoor Chapel.  One of my favorite places on camp property is sitting on one of the benches overlooking the creek.  The bubbling and lapping of the water has such a calming effect.  While I am the calm, cool, and collected type, it had been a while since I had truly sat, not moving, just listening.  One of the hymns that means the most to me came to my mind.  I sang It Is Well a few times before breathing in a sigh filled with peace and joy and taking those steps back towards the people.

I had dishes at supper.  I had a great crew to work with on a Mexican Pile-Up night!  This is quite seriously my favorite camp meal.  It just makes my belly so stinking happy!  :)  I did manage to slosh so much water around and down my legs.  To make matters worse, it was nasty, dirty food water!  Soon after that shift was done, I was headed to bed.  

Believe it or not, I somehow managed to get right around 9 hours of sleep.  At camp.  During 4 State.  Everyone I told could hardly believe me!  I honestly felt like a new woman after that much sleep!  LOVELY!  :)  As I sat enjoying breakfast, Dave came up and asked me to step in the kitchen in place of Katrina who had to take out a trail ride.  I stepped in and Debbi put me back in my kitchen home to help Sarah with the cookies.  We frosted and sprinkled nearly 200 cookies and I somehow mustered up enough self-control to leave the cookies on the pan and not consume countless amounts of them.  I then got moved to the servery again.  Debbi knows me and I am so glad!  I absolutely love where she puts me!  :)  Again, it was another rush for food.  I was then able to eat and say goodbye before loading up my stuff and hitting the road with Lu and some very tired AGWSR girls.

September 2012

Does tomorrow really start birthday month for me?!  Where did this month go?  It was so wonderful and so much happened and so much got done.  I had 30 jam packed days!  :)

Low:

• My car has been a low this month.  I am still lacking tail lights and this has restricted my driving at night.  I feel like my car is dying a slow death, but I need it to hang on just a couple more years...
• It took me close to 4 days to recover from Labor Day weekend.  Because of this, I accidentally slept through part of my night class one night, so I ended up not going at all.

High:

• Camp.  Labor Day weekend and Germantown Men's.  Love camp!
• I was FINALLY reunited with my best friend!

• I am getting sooooooo close to getting placements for student teaching!  I've got my placement for Phase 2 and that should be the same placement for Level 3.
• I applied for graduation!!!  I think it's still sinking in that it is my last semester and it's almost half over already!
• Bible Study.  I love it EVERY week.  I love our study.  I love our group.  I love our God.
• I got to ride a carousel and hang out with Tums and get a cute purse!
• Minnesota with my grandparents.
• I gave blood last week.  Thankfully, I didn't almost pass out like I did last year!  :)
• I feel so full of joy, and I love it!  God has continued to work in my heart since leaving camp, and I've been continuing to stretch and grow, and I want to continue on this path.  I've learned a lot this month and I am truly enjoying my semester!

Birthday month begins tomorrow!  I turn 22 in 28 days!  Holy cow!  I'm that much closer to being a big kid and getting a real job and all the stuff that comes with it.  For now though, I'll spend bits of my free time relishing in Disney movies and coloring pages!  :)

"At times, my journey has seemed unbearable and full of concerns. But as a whole, my time on this Earth has proven to be joyous and filled with love and laughter." -Ami Dark-Rosen

Waiting for the pot to boil

Friday, Jay, Jani, and I headed to camp for the Germantown Men's Retreat.  I loved every minute of it!  :)

Naturally, we had to stop for a pre-drive snack of Scratch cupcakes!  :)

When we got to camp, Andrew gave us the schedule, housing assignments, and asked if I'd be okay with going to the horse area to help with a sick horse.  I changed into my boots and went.  Peter and Katrina were walking Bear around and around.  He was colicky.  We walked in so many circles.  It made for a great opportunity to catch up with Peter and Katrina though.  After a long night of walking Bear around, he was made a little better after a visit from the vet.  If you really want details, ask Chunk or Jay, they'd be happy to recount the tale.  I spent the rest of the evening catching up with the other staff.  It is always good to go back and enjoy that type of fellowship after weeks of separation.  

Saturday morning was WONDERFUL!  On Friday, Andrew had eluded to Sue wanting me to work in the Craft Room and get it more ready for retreat season.  I was absolutely okay with working in there by myself.  I cleaned and put away so much stuff!  It was wonderful and my only hope for that place is that it stays that way for a good long time!  :)  Lunchtime brought news that I would be in the dishroom with Ben and Brennan. It was a lot of fun and hard work.  Ben had to leave, so for a while it was just Brennan and I.  It took a while, but we got things almost done when Chunk and Daniel joined us.  Debbi did give me some great news that I would have a little bit more time before I went into the kitchen because she was moving my kitchen shift back by a half hour.  I sat and continued that wonderful fellowship with Jana, Jani, Chunk, Gage, and whoever else happened to happen along.  Debbi and I worked together for a while before the boys joined us.  It is always refreshing to talk to her and catch her up on my life and how camp has been since I was last there.  Supper ran smoothly, and after clean-up, I began to prepare snack bags for a wedding that camp is hosting next weekend.  Katie and Jani came to join.  Sometimes, the kitchen is such a great hangout spot.  Grown up girl talk is so refreshing.  Jay came and taught us how to make the popcorn and we got snack out and sat for a while.  Jani and I were being ridiculously goofy and grabbed Connect 4.  Why not, right?  Seriously though, it was great!  Rachel joined us and we played a few games.  I accidentally on purpose beat Rachel, and Rachel beat Jani who even cheated!  Last night was a late night, but it was well worth it!

This morning for me was all about fruit and toast.  I also got put on vegetable and pasta detail.  It was a WONDERFUL morning!  At one point, all four of us were waiting on the water to boil so the pasta could get going.  Jani suggested that we pray for Katie who has a big interview coming up.  So we did.  We just stopped and stood there in the middle of the kitchen, in the middle of the fans, dish crew and their noise, and all the other noises, and we paused, breathed deep and prayed.  I was feeling great before that, but I still walked away feeling refreshed.  How awesome is it that talking to God just gives a wonderful feeling of refreshment?!  I love it!  :)  This meal was so chill that we only needed one in the servery and one in the kitchen.  We got things cleaned up early, and Debbi gave us hugs before sending us off.  Does it really have to be a whole month before I'll be back there again?  We got things all packed up and said our goodbyes before hitting the road.  Jay convinced me, it was easy, to stop for ice cream, and then we really got on the road.  It was a quiet ride back.  All 3 of us were beat, but it was worth it!