bring on the sunshine.

It's finally here! Summer. I've been waiting for you. Thanks to the education program, apparently I don't have finals during finals week, so I'm done a week early. And it is SO great. I can't tell you how good it feels to be done. All that's left is a conference with my Reading Ed teacher... we'll see how that one goes. But for now, I'm embracing summer and all it has to offer me. So far (the past 3 days) have been great. And the future looks even better.

Summer so far...

Ice Cream Olympics. Fact- top 5 favorite days of the year. Unfortunately, I had my last class of the semester during it. Butttt I got to show up to see the mess afterwards. It was top notch. Thankfully, I have some great high school friends willing to hug me while they were covered in ice cream, making me feel like I'd been there the whole time.

 

Proud of these girls. True ice cream Olympians right there.

 

All stars. Lookin so good after ice cream wars.

End of the year leadership. Central YL might be the best looking team in Knoxville. It might be a proven fact. Or maybe I'm biased. But I'm leaning towards proven fact. I mean look at these faces.

 

Did I mention we got new leaders? Well, we did. About a month ago. We got SIX. Unbelievable. Lindsey, Abbie, Chelsea, Cayce, Chase, and Conner. They are crazy. And awesome. And funny. And some of my favorite people.

 Here they are running in a flying V around the Fountain City duck pond. Told you they were awesome.

You might not be able to tell what's happening here, but they are chasing and trying to catch ducks. Incredible.

This is a really random post. But it makes me happy. You know what else makes me reallyyyyyyy happy? Christine came to town this weekend. It was SO good to hang out with her. Missed her. Plus Olivia was there. and her precious 8 year old friends. We played the "Favorites" game for hours. Followed by truth or dare... you've never truly played truth or dare til you've played with 8 year olds.

One last thing that makes me happy- Matt comes back from Rome this week. WHOOO!

Finally. Summer 2011 Goal: Blog more. Maybe. We'll see. I have high hopes and see great potential in the thought. 

Stone Age Sassies.

I got to spend a whole week with these girls at Camp Koinonia. We like to call ourselves the Stone Age Sassies. (Camp Theme = time travel) These girls taught me so much, made me laugh so hard, and showed me so much Jesus in the way they loved. And these girls are so brave and adventurous-  we went horseback riding, canoeing, made arts and crafts, shot rifles and bow & arrows, and danced & sang any chance we got. I really don't even know what to say about this week except that it was so wonderful. And I wish SO much that you could spend the time with these girls that I got to spend because each one of them is SO stinkin awesome.

Meet some of my friends...

This is my friend Cassie! I got to hang out with her all week. She's awesome and can ride a horse like nobody's business.

Amber might be the most loving person I've ever met. And she gives great hugs.

 

The talent was probably my favorite moment at camp. Every cabin group got up in front of the camp and sang and danced to their favorite songs and yelled cabin cheers at the end. You can probably imagine there were lots of Beiber fans- at least half the performances were to "Baby"

 

Love birds: Kara and Shawn Mullins. My favorite couple.

 

Though Amber and Eric are pretty up there too...Eric can be a little flirt, Amber had to remind him of the one girlfriend rule a couple of times.

The boys LOVED dancing with Cassie...and Cassie LOVED dancing with them

Oh man I miss these kids. Camp Koinonia you were so good.

Study break.

For some reason, the only times I blog (which let's be honest, it doesn't happen that often) are the times I times when I should be doing school work. Like right now. I SHOULD be writing my paper. But what better way to get my fingers to typing and my mind in writing mode? Because my mind definitely is not in school mode right this second. Instead, I'm thinking about how in two days the car will be packed up and we will be headed to the beach!! One more day of classes. One day of work. Then up bright and early Saturday morning and we're off to Clearwater. I. Cannot. Wait. I need to get out of Knoxville. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Knoxville. In fact, I'm usually sad to leave it. But right now, the thought of getting away from school and busyness has never sounded so good. A whole week of lying on the beach and not having a to-do list sounds so wonderful.

A few things I've been meaning to blog about:
1. DANCE PARTYYYYYY- 90s themed. Strobe light. Spice Girls. Jerseys. Destiny's Child. Neon shorts. Bright shoes. Britney Spears. Jumpsuits. Pleather. Overalls. Celebrating the birth of Jamie Long. I think this was the best dance party yet.

Get it girls

You can't really tell what's going on here. But I also don't have any words to describe it. You can use your imagination.

 2. Capernaum Club- holy moly. Talk about awesome. there are no words to describe how much I loved this. I got to take 6 kids from Central to join a roomful of kids from all around Knoxville that have special needs for a Young Life club just for them. They LOVED it. Justin Bieber even made a few appearances. My favorite part? Sean sitting behind me saying "This is the happiest I've ever been in my life, I think I'm gonna cry!" It was so wonderful. Basically, everyone got to spend the afternoon just being themselves, hearing about  how much Jesus loves them, singing, and tying it all together with a dance party at the end. So so great. I wish these happened more often. One thing I wish I did- take pictures. Shoot.

3. Kaitlyn's Engagement Party- Saturday Lindsey, Laura, Emily, and I headed to Nashville to celebrate with Kaitlyn and her friends and family that SHE'S GETTING MARRIED. So excited for her. I loved seeing her so happy to be surrounded by people she loves. The party was in the coolest barn that belonged to Kaitlyn's fiance Matt's family. It was so pretty! The party was filled with lots of dancing and delicious food (two words- chocolate. fountain. YUM). It was wonderful. Congrats Kaitlyn and Matt- can't wait til the wedding!

Tomorrow night- Gym Night. All of our campers and their parents for Camp Koinonia are coming to mingle and play some games and get to know each other a little better. It's going to be so great. I've already met my camper Cassie a couple times. She's awesome. I am so looking forward to spending a whole week with her. Did I mention our cabin name is the Stone Aged Sassies? Perfect. I cannot wait for tomorrow night. Or to be at camp. Hurry up April 10!

Alright... time to finish that paper. Then it's spring break for me! Clearwater, here I come!

it's been too long...

Missed you blog. I promise I have a good excuse this time- I haven't had a computer for about 20 days. The month before that? I have no excuses... But now thanks to Beezy for pretending to be my dad, the Apple store gladly returned my computer to me.

Just to mention Christmas Break... it was great. Besides working at an ice skating rink. It was SO cold. But I got to work with Lindsey, Ryan, and Scott and got to make some interesting friends. But it was still cold. Christmas was wonderful. The break overall was so refreshing and much needed. It mostly included some fort building, game nights, family time, a birthday hike and a couple of celebrations, and a LOT of sleep. It was awesome.

For now, school is going again (unfortunately... summer- hurry up!) But I reallyyyy love my classes this semester. They're all education classes, and then for one of them I get to spend a week at a camp for kids with special needs. It's going to be SO great.

Thankfully this semester my roommates and I get to return to our Monday night tradition of roommate dinners. It's the only night of the week we can all get together and hang out since all of our schedules are so crazy. We couldn't have roommate dinners last semester because none of our schedules matched up. Lindsey started it up last week and made chicken casserole that was sooooo good. Then I made this buffalo chicken pizza tonight that Delaney and I make sometimes. We keep meaning to take a picture of roommate dinner but always forget. But here's one of my roommates. They're the coolest people you'll probably ever meet.

Well that's all I got. I don't really know how to wrap this up... so here's some highlights from Christmas Break. 

Oh... and Happy Birthday Matt!! Miss you BFF.

3 down. 2 to go.

Finals week. I've already finished 3. 2 left for tomorrow... I've spent way too much time in the library. But... this time tomorrow will be CHRISTMAS BREAK. Thank goodness. Right now I'm sitting in a cubicle on the 5th floor of the library studying (...or taking a study break from) Geology... not really one of my favorite subjects.

This picture is a little late. It's from Halloween. But it makes me smile after studying glaciers, faults, and tectonostratagraphic terrains all morning. Da Unit. 

This also makes me smile. The Thankful Poster currently hanging in our apartment.

Christmas Break... hurry up!!

October.

Well...it's been about a month and a half. I'm making no more promises.

BUT. The past month and half have been SO wonderful. I love October. It is my favorite month for a few reasons: it finally feels like fall, the leaves are changing and BEAUTIFUL, pumpkin spice lattes (along with pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING- pancakes... yum.), Halloween,
pumpkins, candy corn, and a million other wonderful things.

Here are some of my favorite things from this particular October:

Windy Gap was more than I could have hoped for as I took four girls from Central to camp. I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with these girls. Jesus was so present throughout the weekend, and it was apparent in the way he worked in the hearts of these girls. And I loved getting to watch other leaders love their friends all weekend and spend time with them. Camp was wonderful and so refreshing. God is good.


RACHEL GOT MARRIED!!! Rachel was my small group leader last year. I'm very thankful for this girl and am so happy I got to be there for her big day. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL and Rachel was gorgeous. I loved every bit of this wedding- it was outside in a meadow, the weather was PERFECT, and the reception was so much fun. We also got a little surprise... our Young Life leader from high school, Christine, was there with the wedding photographer. Best surprise ever.

For fall break I went with my mom and some family to New York for a little pre-birthday present. Woah. That is one big city. I get lost on a regular basis in Knoxville (I've lived here my whole life), there's no way I would make it anywhere in New York. But it was a lot of fun! Saw all the sites, did some shopping, lots of eating, and some family bonding.

Capernaum Club may have been the highlight of October. Knoxville Young Life had it's first ever Capernaum Young Life Club. Kids with special needs from schools all over Knoxville came to sing, dance, play games, and hear about Jesus. This afternoon was AMAZING. I am so thankful I got to be a part of it. It was a huge surprise to see how many kids from Central came, considering almost all of them had never been to Young Life before. I got to spend most of my time with a boy named Kevin. He's not real big on large crowds of people, so we hung outside most of the time and listened to what was going on from there. By the end of club he was up dancing and laughing. It was so wonderful. Jesus was so alive and present. The kids LOVED it and had so much fun, they were all asking when they could come back. Some have even started coming on Thursday nights to club! This was easily my favorite day of October.


I got to do Race for the Cure with Delaney's small group in honor of her mom. I was so glad to be apart of it. I loved getting to spend some time with those girls and watch them support Delaney so much. I'm really thankful for Delaney, she is so strong and is such a wonderful picture of Jesus. She speaks a lot of truth into my life, as well as makes me laugh A LOT. We're kind of the same person. I don't really know what I'd do without her. Thanks for being in my life.



My little sister turned 16 this month. She's driving. It's really weird. But she's great.


These things make October so wonderful. Along with football games, walks down the boulevard, intermural soccer, dance parties, YL, getting ready for Ashley's wedding, and of course Halloween. I love October.






I have really high expectations for November.