Burnout

Exhausted would be the word to describe how I feel after this week. We had "specialty camps" all week. The kids (and us) got to choose a camp they wanted to participate in every day this week.

My camp was bike camp. This week was the hottest week of the year. We biked 2-3 hours each afternoon and every kid in camp was a middle school boy. Thankfully, I've been getting tons of exercise each day this week, so it wasn't too terrible keeping up with all the boys. We had a great group of kids, though. Really respectful and well-behaved. I loved spending the week with them. And I discovered that I really love biking! I can't put pictures of kids online, but here's the group from the back. I was bringing up the rear.


On Wednesday, Carli and I threw a surprise birthday party for Anne. She was totally surprised and we had an awesome time. Best surprised face ever:

Friday we had some CollegeLife girls over for dinner and female bonding. Activities for the night? Eating dinner, eating junk food, and learning the hoedown throwdown (which is the Hannah Montana dance).

My computer completely crashed yesterday, which was very sad. Luckily, I have an awesome Dad who already got me a new one and will send it with Conner when he comes in a few weeks. I can use Anne's until then. The process of fixing the computer taught me a lot. Like the "blue screen of death" is never a good thing. And apparently computers need regular maintenance. Who knew?


Last night I went to the park with some friends and then watched a movie. Here are a few of my awesome friends:

So much craziness!

The past month has been absolutely insane!! I graduated, started an internship, moved, and applied for several jobs. Ahhh!

Let's start with graduation. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Gran-gran all came up. Mom and Dad got here last Tuesday for graduation on Wednesday. We went to Stefano's (definitely the best pizza in Knoxville) to watch some of the Mavs game after they got here. It was fun and they enjoyed getting to see the strip on Cinco de Mayo! My graduation ceremony was really nice. Very surreal. It honestly is unbelievable to me that it has been four years since I finished high school. It has FLOWN by!! We went to Olive Garden afterward to celebrate.


We graduated!! Me and one of my good friends, Hannah.


With the parents.

And the grandparents.

We hung out on Thursday, moved some, and went to dinner before Dad had to head home. Friday we went to the Appalachian museum and Saturday we had lunch with Diana, went shopping, went to the Chocolate Factory, and viewed Knoxville from the Sunsphere. I was sad to see everyone go, but I'm so thankful they had the opporunity to come up. Hopefully they'll be able to visit again with the rest of the fam or I can go home for a weekend. Conner is definitely coming for a visit at some point, and I can't wait to see him!

I started an internship at JustLead, an urban youth ministry in Knoxville. I will be an AmeriCorps member there as well as a volunteer. I have to complete 510 hours by August, so I will be working insane hours, but I absolutely love is so far. It is such a blessing to be able to work with other Christians each day and get to share Jesus with kids. I feel like I'll be in a great position to really impact these kids' lives and I am praying that I take advantage of my time with them and that I have opportunities for great spiritual conversations with them!

Anne and I moved in with our friend Carli and her dog, Darcy, for the summer. We still have a bunch of boxes to unpack and nowhere to put all of our stuff, but I think we'll have a fun summer here. Darcy was kind enough to help wake Anne up this morning and is currently snoozing next to me. She will be ridiculously spoiled by the end of the summer, I'm sure.

Still looking for opportunities in Eastern Europe. Praying about it and trusting that the right doors will be opened and the wrong ones closed. The waiting game is something I'm horrible at, but this has been an excellent lesson in patience and waiting on the Lord. However, I still catch myself praying almost daily for Him to hurry and reveal His plan for the next year....I think I still have a long way to go on the whole patience thing!

And just so I don't end on a dull note, here's a super-cute picture of Anne, dressed as a flower for YOKE camp. :-)


P.S. I got some awesome deals on books from McKay's recently: Don't Waste Your Life, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, The Pursuit of Holiness, and Crazy Love. I'm way excited to read them all. I started Crazy Love and The Pursuit of Holiness is up next. Can't wait!

April Fools!

These last few weeks have been insane. I have been incredibly busy, but I feel like it has been a busyness with more substantial things. I've been reading a LOT. . . mainly my Bible, Passion and Purity, and Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians. I have loved Luther's commentary. It has given me great insight into Galatians! I haven't loved P&P as much as I expected. It comes highly recommended, but I didn't think it quite lived up to the hype. Good, but not awesome. I just bought a C.S. Lewis book with a collection of seven books on spirituality. . . Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and A Grief Observed. I won't have a chance to start those until next week, but I'm looking forward to it. I also got Crazy Love by Francis Chan and More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.

Today I watched the complete "Does Satan Exist" debate and it was great! I thought that it was very representative of spirituality in America today. It makes me really sad, but I thought that those in defense of Jesus were very powerful. I would highly recommend watching it! It's pretty long, but very worth it.

I went to lunch with Ann from my office today and really enjoyed spending time with her. She has been a great encouragement in my life, and it has been nice to have an older Christian woman to pour into my life.


So, for April Fool's Day, I decided to send my roommates an eviction notice. Since our apartments already despise us, it wasn't really that hard to make it believable. Here is what the letter said:

Dear Apartment Residents,

This is an official notice of eviction, effective two weeks from today, April 15, 2009. Your compliance is appreciated. The following reasons are given for this notice:

1. Failure to pay full rent each month (Reference previous documents received).

2. Disregard of noise complaints filed by other Country Oaks residents (Reference previous documents left at your residence).

3. General hostility toward office staff.

Please note that failure to vacate by the above date will result in legal action. The Sheriff’s Department has been notified of the pending eviction and will be on hand April 15 to ensure that appropriate actions have been taken.

Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact the attorney listed on our website. Any attempts to contact office staff will be viewed as threatening and hostile and will be dealt with accordingly.

Sincerely,

Management Staff

It worked beautifully and was hilarious! I would highly recommend evicting your roommates as an excellent April Fools joke.


That's all for now. I'm looking forward to Easter and the celebration of Jesus' gift of salvation.

Weekend with Grandparents

Maw-maw and Paw-paw leave tomorrow morning to drive back home after a fun (although rainy!) weekend in Knoxville. Aunt Ann left this morning. Today we went to church (a Spanish service, which was a quite a surprise), took naps, and went to dinner with my friends who had been to New Orleans to visit them for the past to Fall Breaks. We had a great time and I am so thankful that they were able to come visit!
Maw-maw, Aunt Ann, and I in front of Neyland Stadium. It was really cold and nasty but they really enjoyed the tour of the campus!

Carli and the roommates at Olive Garden.

Hannah, Leigh, and Diana at dinner.

The whole group at dinner.

Freezing outside the restaurant.


After coffee and birthday cake before they left.

Grandparents Visit, Mexico Trip, and School

So, it's been quite a week for me.

First of all, I will begin with a prayer request. As you probably know, I will be traveling to Tijuana, Mexico two weeks from today to work with orphans. However, this week the US State Department has issued a travel advisory for all Americans traveling to Mexico. Tijuana was specifically named as a hot-spot for violence. This week, I have spent a massive amount of time researching the violence, meeting with the leaders of the trip, seeking advice on how to proceed with the trip, and praying continuously for wisdom on what to do. As of now, I fully intend to continue with the trip as planned. I have a great sense of peace about going. While I am still fearful of what the situation may be like, I am confident that the leaders of the trip will take appropriate actions to help ensure our safety. Please be in prayer for our safety, wisdom, and fear as the trip gets closer!

On to fun news, my Maw-maw and Paw-paw and Aunt Ann are here visiting me this weekend! They came in from New Orleans and Colorado, respectively. Unfortunately, it has been raining all weekend, so we had to scratch a trip to the mountains, but we are still having a great time. Last night, we went to dinner at Calhoun's on the River and then took a short driving tour of downtown Knoxville. Today, after a quick trip to the doctor for Paw-paw's ear, we went on a tour of campus, then had lunch at Moe's on the strip. Tonight my roommates and I made dinner for them (Thanks so much, guys! You're the best!!). We also had a cake for Maw-maw's 80th birthday. Roomie A did the fabulous decorating job!



School is absolutely crazy right now. Midterms are this week and next, I have papers due, and two groups projects this week and next! I definitely won't be getting a lot of sleep the next couple of weeks, but then it's on to Mexico for Spring Break.

And just for fun, here's a couple pictures of Roommate A and I after Wacky-Tacky Club at YOKE. I have to say that's definitely the most colors I've ever had on my body at one time.

A Week (or two) in Review

Things have been rather mundane around here lately. Insanely busy, but nothing really important. A few highlights:

1. I chaperoned a middle school Valentine's Day dance. It was a good reminder of why I would never want to be in middle school again. I also got to deal with children who decided to get into a fight right in front of me. That was exciting (as in terrifying).

2. Our apartment is in a little bit of a prank war at the moment. Yesterday Roommate A got out of the shower to find that her bed was missing from its rightful place in her bedroom. It was later discovered in the living room. It's weird how those things can sometimes happen without any apparent cause or explanation. On Valentine's, Roommate S came home to a Christmas tree next to her bed. It stayed there for several days before it made its way back into a box. I have come home to a messed up closet, missing dishes, and rearranged picture frames on my walls. They are winning, so you can e-mail you fantastic prank ideas to me at any time.

3. I leave for Mexico in less than three weeks!! I am so excited. I have raised most of my money for the trip already and it has been really cool to watch it all come together. God's provision really is awesome!!

4. I am continuing to explore different avenues for a year overseas working with orphans. I don't have a specific country or even part of the world in mind, but I am trying to stay open to wherever the Lord would like to send me. It's an exciting, while terrifying time!


That's all for now. I have to go read, study, and write some papers. Sounds fun, right?

1st Day of Spring Training

Today was Day 1 of training for the 10k. We (my roommates and I) ran a grand total of 1 mile in 10:44. I was just proud I didn't have to stop. After that, we erg-ed, which is some type of rowing machine, for some distance that I don't remember. We were going to do crunches, but we were a little too tired.

We have quite a long way to go, but I'd say it was pretty successful for not having worked out in a year and a half. Training day #2 is Friday. I'm not sure what the training plan is for that workout yet.

The race is mid-May in Washington D.C. We'll be ready by then, right?

In other unimportant news, we had to call maintenance for our apartment for the 4th time today. Time 1 and 2 were for the disposal, time 3 was when the kitchen counter came off the wall, time 4 was for the disposal. Hm. No wonder they don't like us.