This Is The Stuff…

I lost my keys in the great unknown
And call me please 'Cuz I can't find my phone

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff that's getting to me lately
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use

45 in a 35
Sirens and fines while I'm running behind
Whoa

So break me of impatience
Conquer my frustrations
I've got a new appreciation
It's not the end of the world
Oh Oh Oh

(This Is The Stuff....Francesca Battistelli)

My mom found this song a few weeks ago, at the time I’d never heard of it, now I notice it all the time on the radio, and on this particular day it is very much stuck in my head. I keep randomly bursting into song: “45! In a 35!”

I could probably (and I probably do) act out this song on a daily basis…

Ashley’s Life vs “This Is The Stuff” – A Comparison:

I lost my keys in the great unknown – “where are my keys! I need to leave for work five minutes ago! No time to talk. I’ll eat later! Who moved my purse!?”

And call me please, ‘cuz I cant find my phone – since there's no signal in the basement (where I live) I get notified whenever I get a call by one of my brothers. So I have to go upstairs and sit in my parents room to return calls. Or if it’s nice outside I walk around (and around and around) the neighborhood and talk. Or, I make calls on my half hour drives to work on my BluTooth (since handhelds are illegal) But I’ve also been having issues with my phone keeping a charge, due to plugging it in with the charger for my BluTooth (what a spaz attack that little incident gave my phone, poor thing hasn’t been the same since.)

45 in a 35 – I literally see at least five cop cars when I’m driving to work (usually going somewhere around 80…speed limit’s 65)

Sirens and fines while I'm running behind – running behind is right! Thankfully the speed demon in me is slowly being tamed each day, as I realize how much I can’t afford a ticket, not only in money sense, but also at the risk of destroying a perfect driving record!

Whoa – good word

This is the stuff that drives me crazy – my new catch phrase

This is the stuff that’s getting to me lately – and breaks me down so fast

In the middle of my little mess – mess is right! Sorry Mom…

I forget how big I’m blessed - - - whoa, hold the phone. Blessed? This is a blessing? Blessed: highly favored or fortunate (Google definition). So wait a minute, with all this junk and insanity, I’m supposed to remember that I’m “highly favored or fortunate”?? how is that possible when all I’m doing is rushing, and nothing seems to be going right, to feel “highly favored or fortunate”? Um, well, I can feel that way...because I am...so very much so.

I could probably make a list as long as my arm in very small print about all the things that go “wrong” in my day. Unfortunately I’m also reaching that age of maturity (silly growing up!) where I can recognize exactly what lesson I learn from each thing that goes wrong. Lost my keys and phone? Be more organized. Running late? Get up earlier. That was simple. But what about the other things, the ones that drive me insane, but I cant do anything about? Things like, being in a whole new world (cue Aladdin soundtrack) and not knowing where anything outside my street is? Or what about not knowing a single person for more then a few weeks of acquaintance? How about these questions that wont leave my mind about my future. what DO I want to be when I grow up, and how in the world will I find money enough to get there?

This is the stuff that gets under my skin – it just wont leave me alone! It nags at me more then my mother trying to get me to clean the bird cage!

But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing – there's the refreshing breath of spring air. The thing that keeps me going, and often the only reason I’m smiling. I don’t get it. Trust: have faith in, reliance, confidence (cue Sound of Music soundtrack). I can trust that God know exactly why every little, minuscule, nit-picky thing that happens, happens. Not only does He know, but He causes most of it! (though, I think the lost keys are my fault).

It might not be what I would choose - nope. But I’m beginning to appreciate more and more of it. It’s that whole “lessons learned” thing (cue Veggie Tales soundtrack)

But this is the stuff You use – how has He used it? The big stuff, such as the move and people issues, that’s simple. I was stuck, and I was comfortable. That’s a dangerous place to be. I was stuck because I knew everything around me too well. And I was comfortable with my surroundings and not doing anything but going with the easy flow. By moving me, God took me from that place and said “OK, now grow" (grow, grow, grow…cue JJ Heller...a song of which I couldnt find a video)-:

I needed to grow, to be in a place where I was not (am not) comfortable. To meet new people and experience new life and learn how to interact in a place where I am totally unfamiliar. I have always had that security blanket of friends to fall back on if I went too far our of my comfort zone. God took that away from me so I can learn how to fall back on HIM.

And as far as the whole “What am I going to do with my life!?!?” question, He’s using that also to teach me to trust Him. The path I’m walking is dark, but God is my flashlight. These days the light is a little dim and the distance it shines is short, but He will make the way brighter when the time is right.

Whoa! He IS using this stuff!

So break me of impatience – “Wait”?? How much longer? It would be great if I could just, You know, get a tentative schedule, just so I can mark it on my calendar?

Conquer my frustrations – it’s an uphill battle.

I've got a new appreciation – fun thing about it is it’s always a surprise that I learn to appreciate the stuff He uses!

It's not the end of the world – in fact, it’s more like the beginning

Oh Oh Oh.....

P.S. click on the song titles to hear the song for this musical post :-)

All Work No Play??

Yesterday he said my name! My stomach evaporated into giddy butterflies and a smile filled my face. After three weeks, this was the first time I’d heard my name from his mouth. “’Mon, Sashy! ‘Mon!” His big, brown eyes were too much for me to refuse…so I climbed through the narrow opening and joined him on the trampoline and together we yelled, “Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!” then would collapse in a fit of giggles, just to get up and do it all over again.

This little thief who has stolen my heart is not the only culprit, he has three accomplices, all under the age of ten.

A few weeks ago I started a nannying job with a family who lives about a half hour away from me. They have four kids, Will, age 9, Taylor, age 7, Ben age 2, and Andrew, age 6-months. They are all brown-eyed sweeties and I love that I get paid to play with them!

The jumping bean cutie is Ben, today he came running through the house to the living room where I was feeding Andrew (or Jew-jew as he is called, named so by Ben). I could barely pick out my name among the toddler babble, but there was no doubt who he was looking for when he rounded the corner and greeted me with a giggling “Sashy!” (pronounced Ss-AH-shee). “Jumping bean” is pretty much the perfect way to describe this little blonde ball of energy. The first day I worked with them, Ben spent 90% of the night literally bouncing around and around the island in the kitchen. If he’s not jumping he’s running, if he’s not running he’s probably demanding a airplane or horsy ride. (note to self, do not initiate or suggest rides of any kind to a two year old unless absolutely necessary, or else he WILL demand you continue carrying him around and around the living room, and up and down the stairs for hours on end until you can no longer stand straight!) The only way to get Ben to sit and stay is to put on his favorite show, Mickey Mouse Playhouse. He loves his “Mouse” and will sit contentedly for however long it takes to change the baby’s diaper and put him to nap.

Usually I get to the house around 3:00, just as the two older kids are getting home from school. I love the few minutes that surround the homecoming each day. Suddenly we hear the back door open and Ben looks at me with wide eyes and yells “Telah! Wiah!” and does his funny little run to the kitchen to see them. Meanwhile Will and Taylor are rushing through the door, piling coats and backpacks and homework on whatever surface they can find, trying to talk over each other to tell about the things they did today. It’s about five minutes of mass chaos as Mrs. W. smiles and nods and adds a comment when she can fit one in, taking in everything the two say, while Will and Taylor cover the kitchen island with their homework and reach for an afternoon snack, chattering all the time, while Ben tries to squeeze into the forefront of his older siblings attention, but never quite succeeding, while Andrew watches on, smiling and drooling at all the commotion.

After awhile things have calmed down and the kids hit the homework. Sometimes I help Taylor with her math or reading, sometimes I help keep Ben and Andrew occupied and quiet or just out of the way. Will doesn’t usually need too much help, sometimes he asks me to help him with a math problem or two, but all I’ve ever had to do is watch as he works the problem and pretend I’m doing something. I think he just likes having some attention too :-)

Somewhere in the mix of homework and playing dinner is eaten, usually we all just pull up a stool at the island. It there was a center of the universe of this family, the kitchen island would be it, everything happens there! However, we did eat dinner one night in the dinning room at Taylor’s insistence. The night before was Valentines Day, and to make the night special Mrs. W. had decorated the dinning room with paper hearts hanging from the ceiling, and the parents had gotten the kids a balloon bouquet with a giant, floating monkey the size of Ben which took up a corner of the room, and the family had a nice dinner in there. I didn’t stay long enough for dinner that night, but the next night, still riding of the excitement of the spruced up dining room, Taylor wanted us to eat in there rather then the island. Of course we complied.

Taylor is the little princess of the family (in the sweetest possible way). You'd think with three brothers she would take after them more, but no. Her bedroom, all pink (even with a small-ish chandelier!) proudly proclaims in painted letters that “this is where the princess sleeps” above the bed. One night, Mr. and Mrs. W. took Will and Taylor out to a nice dinner and left me with the younger boys. Soon after I arrived, Taylor asked me to come with her and help her pick out an outfit. I could tell she loved the thought of getting dressed up all nice and pretty as she perused her options in her closet, finally settling on a floofy red skirt, a red top with a sequenced rose on the front, and cute little black heels. Of course after donning her apparel she finished the look off with a black and purple plaid headband, a plastic beaded bracelet and a necklace with a chunky golden pendent. Satisfied with her ensemble, she pranced down the stairs (perhaps clicking her heels a little louder then usual against the hardwood steps) and I followed her as she sashayed into the kitchen and literally struck a pose and announced to her waiting family “I’m ready!” She felt beautiful and she was, shorts peeking out from under her skirt and all.

This family is so much fun and I love going to work everyday, even if I come home covered in baby slim, spit up and pee, mud, and peanut butter and jelly. It’s worth it. And it’s practice. Many jobs these days require a practicum, or an internship, so you can become familiar with the career you're studying. Well, my dream job is to be a stay-at-home, home school mom. Having this chance to get up close and personal with these kids is giving me a sort of internship into motherhood. I get to see it all! The messy diapers, the cranky and loud wails, those moments of desperately wishing they would fall asleep, the feeding, the process of keeping one occupied while tending to another, keeping the house clean, even helping with homework is preparing me for teaching my own kids! And even with all the hard stuff, the fun stuff by far outweighs it all.

One of our professors at Focus asked us "What is a job you love doing so much, that you would do it even without pay? I suggest you find someone to pay you to do it." Well, Dr. Leland, I've found such a job.

My Very Own Adventure In Odyssey!

Check it out! Click RIGHT HERE to hear the first episode of the newest album of Adventures in Odyssey! And when you get about halfway through, listen extra close, recognize any of the voices of the reporters yelling in the background? You'd better! Because one of them is ME!! And one of the others is my friend Bethany! In a later episode, I appear as an ambulance driver as I grunt to put a character in the ambulance (though I'm not sure if you can hear me :-) and, Bethany appears in the same episode as Deb, when she talks on the phone to the Detective.

Impossibler

What was your impossible dream growing up? Did you have any? You know, those possible yet impossible things kids in books had, or got to do, that were just out of your reach realistically, yet were entirely possible, you just needed the correct materials? And sadly, because you lacked those materials, you have now grown up, the fulfillment of these impossible dreams has only become impossibler? (um, yeah, I know “impossibler” is not a word, but this is all for a reason. I want to transport you back in time, however many years it takes to put you at the age of 8, where everything was possible. For me, this was 12 years ago, for you it may be more, may be less. But I want you to put yourself back into the mind of an 8 year old, back when the world was yours, your imagination was your reality, and when no one corrected you for using words like “impossibler”)

There I am, in my back yard, my head full of more stories and imaginings than anyone will ever know. I keep most of them to myself, as I am quickly approaching the advanced age of 10, in uh, two years. But my imagination is teaming with possibilities. Even at that young age my Ideation strength runs untamed. You’re here too! You’ve come to play. Isn’t that nice? We don’t have to worry about being all formal, or standing on ceremony by calling to set up an appointed time to make sure we are free for a play date? No, at this age, all we have to do is just walk down the street and ask if the other can come out to play. So simple.

What will we play? All right, house it is! But only if I get to be the oldest sister! Being the oldest grants me the right to have a job, and a car. Who do you want to be, the mother? No? Ok, we can just say the mom and dad are out of town, which means I'm in charge! You can be the baby; I’ll take care of you! Or you can be my best friend; we can do all kinds of fun things, like work together, and go out to eat! Lets go get the dress up box, as working teenagers we have to dress in the highest fashions! I’ll wear the blue dress, if I tie this sash around the waist like this you’ll never know it was torn. Do you like this hat? Ok, now we’re ready. Yeah, your right, I’m bored with this. What should we do now? We could go outside and play on the swing set! We can pretend the platform above the slide is the Dawn Treader, from Narnia, and that we’re sailing across the seas! Hi-ho! A storm is upon us! Oh good, it’s past, all is well.

What should we do now? Do you want to be spies? I can go get my walki-talkies. Ok, your code name is “Alfa Charlie”. If you need me, use the button to send two short beeps and one long. If you get in trouble make the beeps send S.O.S. got it? And don’t get caught! I’ll take the front yard, you take the back. Lets go.

Ok, well, I guess your right, there's really not anyone to spy on. What should we play now? A fort? Yeah, that’s a great idea! Lets go get some sheets and blankets from inside. And guess what! I saw a cardboard box out on the curb down the street, someone must have bought a refrigerator! That’ll be perfect for our fort! We’ll also need markers, we can draw a space ship control panel on the inside of the box, and some scissors, to because out a door. Hey! Lets make one side a space ship, and the other a castle! We can cut out the door to work like a drawbridge.

Well, it’s getting dark out; I think it’s time for dinner. Thanks for coming over though! Maybe tomorrow I can come over to your house and we can play in your imagination.

Oook, welcome back to present day. I hope you had fun playing! I know I did :-) those were some of my favorite things to play growing up. The reason I took you along on that little adventure of adventures, was to remind you of how much fun being a kid can be, and how many good things we get to do at that age that we forget about when we “grow up”. All of a sudden we have to be level headed, and doing impractical things like building forts and playing spies is nothing but silliness and we must be more refined then that. Yes, there comes a point when we just have to grow up…or do we?

Ok, get ready, our adventures aren’t over yet! Now, if you’re not in your twenty something’s, you’ll have to imagine you are (this is where you already twenty something’s have it easy) this time, instead of a back yard, we’re at an apartment complex, with 44 students living in four of the surrounding buildings. Between the buildings there's a nice open lawn, directly in the sunshine all day. You and I are in one of the apartments over looking the lawn, below we can see several students gathering with study material, the laughter and conversation drifts up through our window. Before you know it, we hear a knock at the door, (not just any knock! It’s the secret knock, the person on the outside has knocked five times fast, and they are waiting for us to knock the two times back and let them in). After answering the knock we find a fellow student standing on our doorstep “reading party outside, wanna come?” (do you hear the whispers of years past come back, remember when we were 8, and you came to ask if I could play outside?)

We gather on the lawn, someone brings a guitar. We throw things at the apartments above us, calling for people to come join. We stay out in the sunshine till it falls behind the mountains. Playing the day away.

Now it’s a new day, Alise has posted on Facebook that her apartment is hosting a fort party! “Bring your sheets and blankets”. I, along with Briana, visit each apartment, gathering everyone's extra sheets. Katelyn kindly offers the use of Alyssa’s sheets, since she’s out of town this weekend anyways. Bri and I help Alise and Jenny tack the sheets to the ceiling and walls to build a canopy around their living room. We even put the kitchen table in the hallway, so that you have to crawl under it to enter the fort.

Soon many more students arrive and we put in a movie. Later, after the movie is done, some of us linger and decide we might as well stay the night. Jenny serenades us on her guitar as we slumber.

Now again, a few days later. My life long, impossible childhood dream is about to come true! And you get to witness it! Come with me and look out my balcony window, you see that apartment right across the lawn? Well, also on the third story are some wonderful girls, and all semester I have been wanting to try out a tin can telephone strung from my balcony to theirs, and tonight, by golly, we’re gonna do it! Ok, first I’m going to set up my line, I’ll pop the hole in the cans, string my yarn through one of them and tie the knot. All right, now, just secure the can to the balcony rail like this, good. Now I’m going to drop my ball of yarn and we’ll go out and get it and bring it over to under their apartment. Ok, Ciera’s up there with some yarn of her own, just tell her to let it down and we’ll tie my ball of yarn to her string and she can hoist it up! Now, just to secure the other can, and, perfect! Ok, wait here while I run back and we’ll test it!

"Hello?”

“HI!”

“It works!”

“Haha, this is wonderful!”

“I’m so glad!”

“Me too!”

“Ok, goodbye now!”

“Bye, love you!”

Yes! It works perfectly! My childhood dreams have become a little less impossibler.

Well, you may not believe it, but we did have “play dates” under the guise of studying out on the lawn, and we did actually make a fort in an apartment and sleep in it. And oooh yes indeed! We did make a tin can telephone spanning from their apartment to mine, and yes siree, it worked just fine (except we had to call each other on our cell phones in order to let each other know we wanted to talk on the tin can, eh, minor details). And, the guys below us may or may not have threatened to tap our line, and in fact Chris and Andrew may or may not have succeeded in tapping said line (turns out, tin can phones can work three ways!). So, despite popular demand, child’s play is not just for children.

My time at FLI encouraged me to be who I am, and so much of the time who I am is nothing more than a child’s imagination in a young woman's body. It was wonderful to be free to express that inner child during my time in Colorado, and to be surrounded by people who not only accepted and encouraged that imagination, but used their own childlike imaginations as well.

I'm sorry if this is a random post, right now as I'm writing this it's actually after three in the morning, and it really just started out as a bumbling to fulfill a late night writing craving. But as I went, I kept finding more and more parallels between the free and easy play of a child, and the refreshing and accepting community of FLI, where I was able to do the impossibler.

They Don’t Call It “Life Group” For Nothin’!

So basically, I love my Life Group, and when I say “love”, you had better believe it! I cant imagine the semester without them, the memories I shared with them are among my favorites. As I told Anne Marie on one of our last nights “the ‘Life’ in Life Group stands for ‘Life’, and I plan on having you guys in my life for life!”


Introducing My Life Group 3:

Anne Marie was the first of my Life Group that I met. We sat at the same table on our first night at Focus, eating pizza together. But our real bonding began when she was stranded with me on our hike up the mountain at Horn Creek. We were that group caught in the middle of the fast hikers and the slower ones. The two of us ended up spending the hours together, learning about each others lives, that is until we could no longer breath due to the altitude. We wanted so bad to make it to the top, however, we knew it was time to turn back when we found ourselves walking for two minutes, then stopping to breathe for ten. :-) We came to a fork in the road and decided not to take it…then we got lost coming down and were late for dinner…what adventures!

Next I met Cody. What a guy! I also met him that first night, but just quickly in passing “oh hey! Your in my Life Group!” basically this guys a lot of fun, there's always a party going on around him. My favorite memories of Cody include: Sour Milk Man, the Rapping Preacher, always, always finding a reason to “trot out the two year old”... Etc. Cody was also one of the music leaders for our class, and he did a wonderful job at bringing us together to praise our Lord.

I also met Kensi that first night, and also in passing. Kensi is so classy and wonderful! She kept us on track when we would stray from the topic at hand during class discussions (and, uh, ahem, when Sarah and Chris were paying less than attention during exams…never heard our table so quiet in that one moment!) My favorite memory of Kensi was one night when a bunch of us were hanging out in Jenny’s apartment. I randomly asked Kensi if I could try teasing her hair. She thought about it for a minute then said “sure girl.” I excitedly got a brush but, um, I don’t exactly know how to tease, but I pretended to…sadly I was not able to get a picture, and the ones that were captured Kensi tackled the culprit and deleted them :-( haha.

The next one I remember meeting was Chris. At Horn Creek one of the games we played required us to line up according to our hometown, stretching from west to east, then we folded the line in half and the person we came face to face with was our partner. Well, Aberdeen MD came face to face with Shiner TX. At this point we had to name our two-some and then we were blindfolded and told to find our partner by yelling our own name (I was Jackal and Chris was Hyde). It was mass confusion as the 44 of us yelled and tried to find our partners. FINALLY I hear “Hyde! Hyde!” I excitedly reached out to tag him and we took off our blindfolds to discover…we were the last two on the court. Yay!I have many more great memories with Chris, and this was only a hint to the ones that would follow.

Sarah. Um, I actually don’t remember my first meeting of Sarah. But my first memory of her is when she ran to the front of the bus on the way to Horn Creek and declared “ok! We’re settling this once and for all! How many of you, at some point of your life, were home schooled!?” that was the day we figured out that exactly half of the 44 were of the proud and home schooled! Sarah is just wonderful, she's exuberant and full of life, and her laughter makes you want to fall over and laugh your head off, no matter what it is that's funny! She's a fearless leader, and loves to dress like Ke$ha :-) i have too many memories with this girl to count, she's just wonderful!

Here we are on Stop Light day, at this point so early in the semester we are all green and single...but somewhere around the end we had two reds and a rumored yellow :-)

This was at the koinonia dinner we planned, Super Hero Night!

This is us, " true-to-fact dynamics of the group discussion." as Sarah says it. Oh so different, yet oh so good.

Life Group 3 will forever be in my heart

The Rainy Kid Show

One of our assignments in our Gender & Leadership class was to, as a Life Group, plan and execute a service project. Part of the assignment was to have four meetings led or co-led by each of the group members, and to write a journal entry for each meeting, and then a final reflection paper after the finishing of the project. So, this post is a collection of those journals and the reflection paper.

It was truly a blessed time, one I will cherish always.

This is our poster designed and created by Chris

Journal 1:

Our first meeting was led by Sarah and it took several meetings to actually decide what to do. we had many ideas but none that really grabbed us, so we had a few meetings and thought about our different options, but nothing was standing out, and when we would try to put together one of our ideas, it didn’t go to far. Then, as we were working on our Leadership skit, Sarah mentioned that Joy Messier and her had practicum with Rising Voice, and they were starting a campaign to help raise money for an organization called Children's Hope Chest. So, if we were interested, we could join with Life Group 7 and have a fund raiser through a local coffee shop. So it was there, as we sprawled on the floor of the computer lab that we decided on our experience.

Journal 2:

The second meeting was led by Anne Marie and Chris. It was good to come together as a group and just make sure we were all on the same page. This wasn’t a long meeting by any means, basically we were given a list of the positions that needed to be taken, and a few were filled. Later that week the rest of us were filled into the positions and given our responsibilities. We also had a meeting where we joined Life Group 7, since many of our jobs were shared with others in that group. My job, along with Kendra, was to put together a PowerPoint to be playing throughout the show, and make sure the video was ready to be shown halfway through. The other half of the job, which Kendra took on, was to prepare several sound bites, just a minute speech to give between performances.

Journal 3:

Our third meeting was led by Kensi and Janae. The two groups met together in Janae’s apartment the night before the show and made sure we all knew where, what, and when we were supposed to be doing. The best part of this meeting had little to do with the meeting itself, as much as it was wonderful to just be together. It was the day after break so most of us were just getting back from their home visits (with Chris and Kendra coming straight from the airport, luggage and all!) it was so refreshing to be together again, and to see the dynamics playing out in that room between our groups as we reunited as a family was a foreshadowing to how the show would play out the next night. This was a special, special night.

Journal 4:

We again joined Groups 3 and 7 for the final rundown meeting. This was led by Cody and I on behalf of Group 3, and Kendra and Scott for Group 7. We pushed a couple tables together at lunch the day after the show and discussed the event. First we encouraged each other by talking about the things that went right and smooth, ways we saw each other working to make the show better, and how much we enjoyed the shared experience. Then we talked about some of the things that could have gone better, or things that disappointed us. Even though we made just about $200 through the sales of the art show and coffee sales, most of that was our fellow Focus students, we didn’t really see anything come out of our efforts to advertise the event to the community, the marketing could have been looked after better.

Cody, Jenny and Kensi Performing

Reflections Of A Coffee Shop Full Of Friends And Life Lessons

I walked into the little coffee shop and took in my surroundings. Over on the corner stage was Cody, setting up the microphones and instruments. Across from him in the other corner was Chris, working out the kinks in the sound board. Sarah and Anne Marie were behind the art show table, organizing all the donations and Rising Voice promotions. Kensi dashed back and forth between the three, making sure everyone knew their jobs and that things were running smoothly. I smiled, proud of my Life Group and the project we were about to pull together, along with Life Group 7, and I went to figure out how to plug in my laptop for the slide show promoting Children's Hope Chest.

That night was only the final product of a plan we had been working on developing for several weeks. Joining up with Group 7 might have been a risky choice, I've noticed that all the groups have different ways of operating, and I wasn’t sure how mixing two groups would work out. But it turned out so wonderfully. Because we joined up with the other group we were able to accomplish so much more and run so much more smoothly.

We had decided to put on a show at Jives Coffee Shop to raise money for Children's Hope Chest through Sarah and Joy’s practicum site, Rising Voice. With the creativity in our two combined groups, we were able to come up with the idea of a music and art show, and this coffee shop was willing to give us a percentage of the sales from the night as well. We were able to enlist our fellow classmates to support us by donating their time and provide the music, as well as their talent and donate art items to be sold. We were also blessed by our classmates support on the night of the show by the way they all showed up and hung out in the shop, cheering for the music and purchasing the art items.

Since marketing the show was our weakest area, we didn’t get any traffic other than the coffee shop regulars and our classmates, but the support from our classmates was outstanding and made the night a success! Through the art sales, coffee sales and donations we were able to make over two hundred dollars for our cause, and learn a lot about leadership and make some great memories in the process!

I really did learn so much through this project. Mainly through watching my friends in my group lead and creating a desire in me to lead like them. Through Sarah I learned to take initiative, when she sees a job that needs to be done, she does it, or she finds the best person to do it and encourages them to do it.

I learned from Anne Marie to look at all the details, there's so much more to a project like this than initially meets they eye, and Anne Marie will find those little things and make sure they’re seen to.

Chris taught me to think outside the box. When he is faced with a situation he is able to take it and turn it around and around in his head and come up with the best strategy to implement the different things that need to be done, and to think of other aspects that none of the rest of us would have put together that make the process smoother and more efficient.

Kensi taught me the importance of being organized and making sure everyone has a job, knows their job, and is doing their job. She was so wonderful about the little details and making sure someone was in charge of everything and delegating the jobs to people who had the strengths and talents to get the job done.

And Cody taught me the importance of the relational aspect; he made sure everyone was in his or her area of expertise and happy doing it. He always brings a party with him, but that doesn’t mean he works any less hard.

I also learned similar lessons of dedication and solid leadership from Life Group 7 and it was such a blessing for our groups to be able to work with that group and learn double!

This experience is one I will remember my whole life, and I cant wait to have another opportunity to implement the lessons I learned through it.

Here are Life Groups 3 & 7, a job well done!

Mountains + Snow + Colorado = SKI TRIP!! (of course ya silly!)

Once again, we were dragging ourselves out of bed in the early morning (you know, that part of the morning that doesn’t even qualify as morning since the sun is still hours from rising…that part of morning!).
I grabbed my skies and boots from the porch, said good morning to Orion as we finiggled (real word, I made it up) our gear into the trunk of Christine’s car and headed out, joining the caravan of students heading to Focus to meet the bus.
After the belated arrival of the bus, we piled in and got situated, Katelyn sat next to me, which brought me much joy, however it was not long into the trip that I fell away to sleep, and I did not revive until we were turning into Copper Mountain.
Right away we geared up and headed out. Since it had been so long since I’d skied, I decided to join a group of mostly newbies. So I waddled over to Jenny, Kenzi, Daniel, Ciera and Joy M. Since most of that group had never skied (I think only two or three of us had before) we decided to look for the Bunny Hill, but we were told that it was closed, but the hill to our right would be an easy start. So, the six of us learned how to put our skies on, and made our way over to the lift. Jenny and Kensi got on one chair, and the rest of us squeezed on to the chair behind them and were whisked up and away, the hill below us crisp and white, the unbroken snow gleaming.
All was fun and happiness upon our chair, we laughed and chatted as the whirring of the lift did it’s job. But alas, it was only to last a few short minutes. Before we were even a fourth of the way up the hill, our ride came to a jolting stop. We sat there, rocking in the light breeze. We could still see the beginning of the lift at the bottom, as we watched, they started sending people away, we assumed they were telling them it was going to be a long wait and suggesting they choose a different hill.
The time flew by atop the lift. We asked questions, told stories, yelled insults back and forth between our two chairs, listened to the “cats” in the trees (um, Daniel) and just had a good time as friends. After awhile, we saw a man in a red Ski Patrol coat slowly making his way down the hill, the fluffy, uncut snow covering his skies. He was stopping under each chair and saying something to the occupants. When he finally made his way to us we gave him an exuberant “hello!” he told us that it should only be a few more minutes and if we were all doing alright. We told him we were fine, and how long had we been up here? “About 30 minutes” he replied, and continued his way down the mountain.
We sat there for a while longer, every few minutes a Ski Patrol would come make sure everyone was okay. After awhile, several Ski Patrol came and positioned themselves below every couple chairs, next thing we knew, we were MOVING!! We progressed up the hill, waving and calling hello and thank you to every Ski Patrol we passed. When we go to the top, a woman was passing out free ski passes ($90 value) because of our inconvenience. We asked he how long we’d been stuck, she said about 45 minutes to an hour! Sure didn’t feel like it was that long.
Finally, we began our trek down the hill. Come to find out it was pretty steep at the top, so we showed the beginners the basics and tried to make it to shallower ground. Um, whoever told us this hill was “basically a bunny hill” needs to get his hills straight. The girls all did all right, pretty soon we’d split into two groups, the faster group went ahead, and Daniel and I hung behind. Daniel was having a harder time getting his skies under him, he could turn to the left just fine, but when it came time to turn right he’d loose his balance.
After awhile Matt B. and A.K. skied past. They gave us some pointers then headed down. We saw them twice more in the next few minutes (I couldn’t believe they were getting down and back up that fast! Haha, but I guess my perception of how long the lift ride took was a bit skewed)
Anyways, Daniel was finally starting to get the hang of things when we ran out of hill, by that time it was lunch time so we headed into the lodge. Just as I was pulling out my sack lunch another group was going out again to hit some bigger hills, so I brought my pizza with me and went right back out. By that time I was itching for speed, and that’s what I got the rest of the day. I learned that skiing is that it’s just like riding a bike, once you’ve learned you never forget.
When I was about five my dad started bringing me with him when he went on Friday nights with a high school ski club. Dad was one of the supervisors, and being such he got free season passes for him and his family. So, from the time I was five, till the time I was about sixteen when Dad quit the club, I skied pretty much every winter Friday night of my life. When Dad stopped going, I didn’t think I’d miss it, actually I didn’t miss it really, and when they told us at Focus that we’d be going, I was excited, but more like a “oh, yeah, that could be fun” kind of excitement. It wasn’t till I was reintroduced to that thrill of speed, the feeling of almost losing control, that skidding sound of stopping and waiting for your breath to catch up with you, having left it halfway up the hill that I began to become reacquainted with my love for skiing. Actually, I don’t know if our relationship ever advanced farther than the “like” stage when I was a child, it was necessary for the long absents for me to fully realize that we were meant to be together. (ok, sorry, it’s late as I’m writing this, these things happen :-)
Anyways, in short, I stayed out the rest of the day. It was lovely out, blue skies and sunshine, no wind. Perfect. I joined a few different groups as I found them, but the interesting part of the trip was that we didn’t run into many other students. I guess it’s such a hit a miss thing. But it was nice, because then I got to know the people I was with very well :-)
Anyways, it was a lovely, enjoyable day. Just as it was nearing 4:00 (our rendezvous time with the bus) I was skiing with Sarah. We decided we had time for one last run, so we went to a hill we hadn’t gone down yet. When we got to the top, we strapped on our poles and said “see ya at the bottom” and took off.
I was quite proud of myself, up to that point, the whole day, I had not fallen once, despite gravities many attempts. And I am proud to say this ride was no exception, (even though I really should have fallen, and fallen HARD!) right from the top of the hill I lost control. Sarah barely had time to say, “see ya” before I was gone! I don’t know if I’ve ever gone so fast in my life!! I was sure I was gonna fall, and I knew if I did it was gonna hurt like no other! At one point my ski went funny and my pole shot out in front of me at the same time and I thought to myself, “this is it! I. Am. Going. To. Die!” but somehow, I didn’t, and I stayed up!! I was able to stop halfway down, I pulled off to the side and bent over my poles, gasping for air and laughing my head off. I had been going so fast that my face was streaked with tears (well, maybe a few of them weren’t from speed). I wiped them away and slowly made my way down the rest of the hill. Giddy to be alive!
The bus ride home did not lack its excitement either, I sat next to Sarah, with Chris and Ciera in the seats in front of us. Lets just say that the laughter didn’t stop, for the whole two-hour trip. As the rest of the bus quietly read or slept, our conversation only got louder and crazier. I don’t know if I've ever laughed so hard or loud or happily. Topic of choice? Plungers. Get yours at CustomPlunger.Com, coming to a bathroom near you.