Saving Some For Later...

Had some delicious chicken teriyaki stuff for lunch...really good leftovers from the other day. Broccoli, red peppers, peas, rice - the works! Mr. Broccoli decides he wants to make his new home between my front teeth. Didn't realize it though until about 30 minutes later...after 8 or so people had the opportunity to tell me about my new little friend and didn't! How embarrassing...LOL!

Busy Summer...Need Prayer

Just wanted to make a plea to anyone reading this silly thing...
Our elementary team needs a ton of your prayers in the next month. We are experiencing one of the most chaotic summers a ministry can handle (by the grace of God we will make it thru). Camp starts in a week and a half and well, we have loads of details to cover. If you don't mind, I'm just going to list some things you can briefly pray for:
1 - Pray God will provide the right volunteers. Some of our biggest weeks still are lacking 1/2 the amount of adults leaders needed...that's bad! Some groups don't even have leaders and we're talking 15 or so kids to a group. Yikes!
2 - Pray that the volunteers we do have will stay committed and show up tonight for the training!
3 - Pray for Karla (new events person on staff - 1st time heading up camp), that she would do a great job!
4 - Pray our staff will hang tight with each other and not be divided.
5 - Pray for a smoothe transition into our new security system (Fellowship One). The entire church is going to this new check-in system, but it effects everything in the children's departments. This transition takes place right in the middle of camp season!
6 - Pray that with all the changes happening in our program, that we will be able to avoid huge disasters and handle everything as it comes our way.
7 - Pray that in all of this we will not forget our main reason for doing what we do...and that's helping to raise spiritual champions for God!

I suppose that a few things to get ya started;) Thank you for praying and lifting up our team. If you want to pray for anyone by name, here ya go...
Steve, Jon, Nevan, Jan, Amanda, Robin, Jo, Cheryll, Karla, Donna...and me!

It Was A Nightmare...

My worst fears came true yesterday as they played the intern video during the all-staff meeting. I am now known to everyone as the "dumb blonde". Out of all the questions I answered...oh, maybe 10...they choose to use the ones I didn't so much answer. So the entire time I looked like an idiot saying,"Ummm...I don't know." Wouldn't have been so bad if everyone else on the video had dumb blonde moments too...nope, they all answered with funny, witty comments. Aren't first impressions great?

I know....GET OVER IT! I will, don't worry...

BIG Weekend in IL

It was a BIG weekend for some of my dear friends in IL! Huge monumental moments in their lives and I missed them because of my responsibilities here in Kentucky...huge bummer in my book! Hopefully, they will forgive me:)

*Jon and Jess FINALLY got married!!! Whew hew! This beautiful couple came out of a fairly tale it seems...met at camp, became high school sweethearts, stuck it out through college...been together forever it seems and love each other like they met yesterday! They make a powerful ministry team and are going to be incredible partners for the rest of their days. My biggest congrats and warmest wishes on their new life as Mr.& Mrs. Pittman. Can't wait to see pictures:)

*Mr. Brian Lowery was ordained last night at his new place of ministry up in the Chicago area. Loretta, John & Sha were headed up yesterday to help lead worship for the ceremony. Couldn't be happier for the guy - he's been through the trenches and come out stronger than ever! Thanks be to Jesus:) He's found a lady friend he can share his life with and it sounds like it's a match made in Heaven - congrats! Wish I could have been there for my friend. Looking for great things to come...

Worship with David Crowder

All I can say is WOW! Thank God for the David Crowder Band, their gifts, their talent, their hearts...incredible night of worship! Ended up being two levels of the auditorium packed (close to 6,000 people) and we were all singing, jumping, screaming...it was awesome! God had to be smiling:) (or at least laughing cause I know I looked retarded at moments!)

We rocked it out at times, but it was interspersed with beautiful melodies and a time of communion - it was all much needed for the soul. Favorite song of the night had to be "For You Are Good" ("I cry out - for Your hand of mercy to heal me"). The words of the song just spoke to my heart and I melted. I sang the sweet melody to my Savior and praised Him for being so good to me. I realized how blessed I am to have my family, my dear friends, to be where I am and to be doing what I'm doing...holy cow...I have nothing to ever complain about! When it got to the part of the song where we sang "I'm alive - I'm alive - I'm alive....", I gave it my all and released a long-time-coming "Thanks" to my God. He is good and He gives...

Fishin Wiz

Karla, John, Brandon and I went fishing today out at Country Lake Christian Retreat (aka "the camp"). Now I haven't been fishing since I was a kid and so needless to say, I was a little rusty with my "gill skills". John was Mr. Expert and caught like 4 or 5 fish. The rest of us...not so much...truthfully, none at all!

Things I discovered while fishing...
1-push the button, fling your pole...AND RELEASE THE BUTTON(otherwise the line goes nowhere!)
2-there's alot of ooey-gooey gunk in the lake...kept getting caught on my hook.
3-fish aren't as dumb as I thought...didn't take the bait.
4-big worm on a small hook doesn't work...your worms tend to fall off. went thru 5 before I figured that one out - i'm a genius!
5-when your tired and hot...convince others that your pole is better than theirs, offer to let them borrow yours and go take a nap on a hammock in the shade. much more fun:)

Intern Video

My first "All Staff" meeting is quickly approaching on Monday and at these wonderful meetings they like to introduce the new interns so everyone can meet them. In the past they have had the interns come up on stage and completely humiliate them in front of everyone...this year, they are making a video. PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW! There will still be a huge amount of humiliating factors in it for each of us, but at least it will be an edited version. I just did my interview with Tim and thankfully there was no one else in the room. He asked about 8 or so questions...to which I maybe answered 5 or 6 (the rest I just laughed and said "I got nothing"). He was laughing at me through alot of it...so chances are I could be quite embarassed when this whole video thing is shown. Praying I can just laugh at myself and have a blast (and that someone else might fit the "dumb blonde" category with me)!

Michigan...The Hidden Treasure State

So just got back from the Team Retreat at Lake Michigan last night about 1am and struggling to stay awake this afternoon. Good times were had on the beach and on Grand Haven's beachfront. Lake Michigan is absolutely gorgeous this time of year (who knew??). The weather was perfect - sunny/80s in the afternoon and a little cooler come morning or nightfall. We just sat out on the deck at the cottage and enjoyed God's beautiful creation. Every night we were there, I got to witness some incredible sunsets - two at the cottage and one on the pier. They were breathtaking.

Not only were there beautiful moments...there were some stinking hilarious moments too. Lots of team bonding and side-splitting laughter. Most of that kind of laughter occured late last night in the car ride home. Steve busted out his uncontrollable girlie laugh - and we all witnessed it (tears streaming and all)! Karla pulled some muscles in her side - her laugh is so contagious! We just had a great time.

Got to try lots of local food establishments...none of that food chain restaurant eating while on vacation. Some tasty and delicious food I might add! But the greatest discovery was a little thing called the Pronto Pup - it is similar to a corn dog, but the batter is sweeter and alot thinner. Deep fried and ketchup brushed on...mmmm! Good times:)

Wish at this moment I knew how to download pictures to put on this blog...I'm a retard. Some day...some day.

Heading North

Wanted to take a brief moment before I headed home tonight to say farewell for a couple days. I will be heading up to Michigan for our team retreat tomorrow afternoon. Staying at a beach house and relaxing (while planning and working of course) will be a nice way to spend the next couple of days. This week has been crazy busy and it will only look to get worse as camp approaches. So many things on the platter...whew!

Life has been good though...spending time with new friends and getting to experience life here in Louisville with all it has to offer. Got to go to an outdoor amphitheatre last night to watch an incredible production of Beauty and the Beast. A 15 year old girl played "Belle" - HOLY COW! Phenomenal! I was impressed by the whole cast.

Finally got to induldge myself in a HOT KRISPY KREME doughnut last night!! It has been months of deprivation and I was seriously needing a fix. It was perfect...and I have about a half dozen more waiting at home for me right now. They're calling my name.....I'm comin guys! Well, better sign off. No one should ever work more than 7 hours on a Saturday night:) Be back Thursday!

Some of my favorite people...

Ya know there's only so much communicating though email and blogging that you can take before you just have to call someone and talk to them. That happened to me last night. Had a great conversation with Loretta and Shawna - just catching up - it was wonderful! They are some of my favorite people in the whole world...love em to pieces. Going to be stuck with them for the rest of my life and I couldn't be happier:)

Evening at the Stone's

The interns had their first "night out" last night. We headed over to Dave & Beth Stone's house for dinner and for a fun-filled evening of games. I say that sarcastically...only because they were all those brain-teaser games that drive me batty - because I get so frustrated when I can't figure out the secret that everyone else is catching on to. (Games like "Chicken, Chicken, Little Red Chicken" "Fuzzy Wuzzy" "1-2-3 Silverware" "Sandwriting" etc) You can call it a blonde moment or whatever, but I get so irritated that I start sending out "hate looks" to the person running the game (which last night was Mr. Dave Stone himself)! Now, I didn't realize I was doing this throughout the night, but he brought it to my attention in front of everyone and humiliated me (it was so funny). He found it hilarious to watch my facial expressions all night long from the point of "utter frustration" to "AAHHH! I get it...how stupid am I for not catching that!" He just laughed and laughed. I felt like an idiot.

The best of "all time embarassing moments in front of famous preachers of mega churches" came later in the evening when Dave thought he would play a little joke on me. We played a game called "Sandwriting" where he would try to spell out words using hand motions, clapping, snapping, talking and we had to figure out the pattern and guess the word. The first round he made it obvious to me what he was spelling - I caught on quick to the pattern and felt quite like a know-it-all. When he asked if I knew, I said "Sure, I got this one!" He decided to test it out and sent me in the other room, while he and the others decided on the word to spell out.

His son, Sam and I played the round together - so we went in the bathroom for 10 seconds. We came out and Dave started his crazy hand motions and clapping etc. I watched the floor intently as I saw him CLEARLY spell out S...E...X! I thought to myself..."are you kidding me? This has got to be a joke! I'm not going to yell out SEX in a preacher's home!" Then, just when I was about to blurt out the answer I thought was correct, Sam yells out "CHAIR"! I looked at him like he was an idiot...but he was right. Dave spelled out CHAIR. He completely used his arm motions to distract me from the real pattern of the game. The real secret was to listen to his sentences while he was speaking to pick up the pattern...not to look at his hands. His wife Beth knew what was going on...so she had the camera there to take a picture of my face when the light finally clicked on upstairs! They were so sneaky...and I was ssssooooo embarassed!

No one else in the group knew what was happening at the time. But they knew we were laughing about something hilarious. So an even more embarassing time came later in the night when the truth came out and everyone was clued in on the joke. The room errupted and my face turned so RED...I laughed until I cried! It was a great night. Now I don't know if I'll ever take Dave serious from the pulpit again - just kidding! Their family is actually pretty amazing and I appreciated the way they made us feel so welcomed!

Video Debut

The entire afternoon was spent with Nevan (Mr. Video/Tech) shooting pictures for an upcoming video we are producing for the kids' worship services the first weekend in July. The lesson topic that weekend will be about Job and all his many sufferings, but how he ended up praising God through it all.

The video will be featuring "Miss Sara" going through her horrible day. So much bad stuff happens to her in one day...it's ridiculous! She wakes up late, gets in a car accident, gets yelled at by her boss for being late, gets hit in the face with a basketball, burns her mouth on coffee, the vending machine won't give her the Snickers, so she kicks it and hurts herself, uses the men's restroom by accident, gets stuck in an elevator, tries to by medicine for her headache, but the store doesn't take debit cards, she falls down a huge flight of stairs, gets embarrassed when she thinks someone is waving at her, but in actuality, they are waving to the person behind her, gets arrested by a cop for speeding and breaking the "click it or ticket" law....I mean it just goes on and on...

Now personally, I know I'm not that great at being funny or creative...so, the video may not be that great. But I tried and I'm doing things that are helping me come out of my shell. (After everyone sees this though...they may tell me to go back in my shell and never come out again!) :)

My Apologies

So sorry Kevin for leaving the 2-link thing up for so long. Ret said it was bugging you, but I've been in Lexington all weekend and didn't pay much attention to the blog. Seems as though we have it fixed now:) Thanks again for all your help!

Kevin Nobis is the Man!

If you are a frequent visitor of this site, then you may have noticed the change in background. Well, when I made this big change, I lost my links...STINK! So, I emailed the cool computer tech guy himself, Kevin Nobis, and begged for assistance in this matter. He saved the day by emailing me back everything I needed to copy into my settings page...and off I went! Kevin...you're the man!!:) Thanks!

Camp or Resort?

Steve, Nevan and I headed out to camp today - Country Lake Christian Retreat in southern Indiana. Holy Cow! This place was beautiful! I think Southeast is like a co-owner of this camp - unbelieveable! Of course there is this gorgeous lake with tall trees surrounding it and a beach on one side - this is the camp side or what they refer to as the "Ranch" side. It has your normal bunk houses, dining house, snack shack and field areas. Bonus - sand volleyball courts, hotel-like pool, hammocks tied to trees all over the wooded areas and huge, fun blow-up toys out on the lake (ie - the BLOB and the ICEBERG)...Miss Sara is going to have fun this summer:)

The other side is what made my mouth drop - The Retreat Side! This place must have cost millions, but it is this beautiful hunting lodge type retreat center. For those in Quincy...reminds me alot of Stoney Creek Inn - that atmosphere. Huge ceiling with this gargantuous fireplace, cozy leather couches in the lobby...this isn't a camp...this is a resort! Crazy ridiculous, but I'll live it up for the summer! This chic is not complaining one bit;)

Seriously though...I think back to my incredible summers at Lamoine and at West Central and miss them terribly. I loved those camps and nothing will ever compare! A bit jealous that a bunch of my friends are having a terrific time at Lamoine this week with the kiddies. Have fun guys! :)

Told Not to Pray

This is a funny story...and a first I might add! We were sitting at the dinner table last night (Amy, me & the boys), when Amy asked who wanted to pray. I asked Spencer and he shook his head no and then I asked Sammy if he wanted to...again, no. Then I asked them if they wanted Mommy to pray...no. "Do you want me to pray?" "NO! You can't pray!" shouted Sammy. I said,"Well, then, who's going to pray?" "No one, I don't want to pray...we're not going to pray!!" This went on for awhile. Amy then asked if I would just pray. Sure! I started praying...Sammy started SCREAMING!! "NNNOOOOO!!" I about busted out laughing, but held it in cause she was trying to discipline him. It was such a funny & memorable moment - never in my life had someone flat out screamed during my prayer and told me not to pray:) Giggling a bit, I thanked Jesus and said a quick Amen.

Random Tidbits

RT #1: Watched Phantom of the Opera last night (the video of course)...WOW! Trust me, if it was the Broadway show, it would get its own blog entry.

RT #2: I was introduced to a bagillion kids this weekend in the kids' services and remember 3 names. Two girls named Rachel and a boy named John. In telling them how I hope I will remember their names next week, one of the Rachel's says to me, "Just to let you know, I will be wearing a dress...or pants" (completely serious). I laughed and said "Oh, thanks! That'll narrow it down." :) Then she laughed and realized what she said.

RT #3: Finally watched "Meet the Fockers" on Friday night - hilarious! Yeah, I know...I'm watching alot of movies. It's pathetic!

RT #4: Cool restaurants I've eaten at so far...*W.W. Cousins *Bahama Breeze(recommended by John and the Nobis clan) *Q'doba ...and the list will continue to grow because Louisville has the most restaurants per capita (at least in KY)!

RT #5: Things I've appreciated this week...phone calls from my mom every day, text messages from Ret, phone messages from Becca and Dotty, a note from Laura (team member's wife), getting my computer and phone hooked up, going to The Vine last night and meeting some new folks and feeling a bit like I was at home because it was so much like Fuel. Those are a few things...

Mmmm...

It's the end of the day. About to call it quits and head "home". Have had this really annoying uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach all day. Don't know how to describe it...mixture of feeling like a stranger, knowing the road ahead won't be easy, feeling like Louisville is not home yet, getting used to the idea of this gigantic church and not knowing for sure if I'm going to like it, knowing all my friends will be meeting at FUEL tonight and that for the first time in 8 months, I won't be there with them, missing the chance to lead worship with John, Sha and Neal and also missing the hugs from all my sweet friends. There's been a lot of homesickness this week, but I put up my pictures to remind me of all you incredible people. So I'll shed a tear or two (or 100)...hoping it will make the uneasy feeling go away. Funny how you don't realize how much people mean to you until they're gone...mmmm.

Bright Moments Today

Today in the office was filled with more confusion and just utter "whatever you want me to do...I'll do it...simply give me something to do"! I finally cornered Steve in his office after lunch and asked him to touch base with me about the internship. Finally found out some basic info and felt a little better. Learning to ASK QUESTIONS - helping out a ton! Using the whole "I'm the new intern here" bit alot...it's great! So here were some bright moments in my day today:

1. Got a new chair (the one I snagged yesterday was broken:)
2. Got a call from Nathan Rector at lunch today. He forgot to catch me before I left Quincy to say goodbye...very thoughtful. Miss all the Quincy kids:)
3. Got me some new office supplies - YIPPEE! It's like the first day of school.
4. Finally finding a computer I could use in the office to check my email!
5. Getting my first phone call from the operator. It was Vicki from LabCorp - the lady I met earlier that day when I went in for blood testing. Random, but still cool!
6. Hanging in the office hall with new pals on staff...Nevan, Jon and Steve.
7. Got my new keys today from Dorleen G!

So, that was my day. Better head back to my little corner:)