in the light!

So I got to have lunch today with two of the coolest girls I am blessed to know. We went to Panera Bread and hung out for like 2hrs. catching up. It is a really good time to be able to hang out with people that you really like and just talk about anything. I didn't do too much of the talking either, which is kind of nice. This picture is fun because Karla looks like she's thinking "whoa did you know you had a light coming out of your head?"

Z is for zzzzzz....SLOR!

Okay so I'm too lazy to think of anything for Zz and I have no intention of doing it but to complete this craziness I thought I'd go ahead and keep the title. Last year my friends and I made a sled to help raise funds for a local boys home. Well this year we did it again. I only have a couple pictures worth showing but there will be more soon if I can bum them off my friends any time soon.

Not goodbye

So yea,

Only one of the coolest people I know is going to begin her journey to Australia in about 3 hrs. She's going to be there for two years training people to be disciples through an organization called YWAM. She's going to be on staff there working in the Biblical Studies program.



She's not one of those girly girls (no offense to those of you who are), that like to talk about hair and make-up or boys all the time (again no offense to those of you who do). This is probably one of the reasons that I appreciate our friendship so much. I'm not very girly (or at least I don't feel so most of the time) and it's nice to have someone around that I can relate to. She is very "real" and not afraid to be herself in front of everybody.



An instant friend to anyone, she is super-fun to be around, and always easy to talk to. I value her friendship and insight into life and God's workings in it, more than she knows. Although she can be a little dramatic sometimes (something to do with her being a middle-child and all), there's never a dull moment.


It is my hope and prayer that while she is back in Australia, she continues to glorify you God in all that she does. Father, help her to train up disciples to follow you and know you more. May she remember that You are always with her in the good times and the bad, and that Your plans for her are better than any she could have planned for herself. I love you and thank you for putting her in my life.

Best of Show!

Ok, so I know it's been almost a month since this event actually happened but just in case you were wondering how it went............


First, here are some pictures from the Wild and Wacky Cardboard Sled Derby:

Showing up with the whale and boat on our trailer to Whitetail Ski Resort was probably the most fun out of the entire event. Watching everyone's facial expressions as we unloaded the beast was great fun! The actual race itself was very short-lived. The sled went of it's own accord for probably about 3 seconds. One moment of those 3 seconds ended up in the local paper though. The photographer for the Herald Mail caught an image of me running in front of the whale as if I was being chased by it (this was actually the moment right before I jumped into the mouth of the whale, definitely something I'll never forget). It was great fun!

We ended up winning Best of Show and 2nd place for funds raised. While yes it is a very strange and bizarre thing for people to make cardboard sleds and race them it is definitely for a good cause. Not only does it encourage community by bringing people together, but it also benefits Cedar Ridge Boys Ministry.

No children were hurt in the sledding of the beast!

Slor Fest 2007

So what have I been up to lately? Well other than being completely weird because of medications from my wisdom teeth removal surgery (yea I guess I did act a little weird, but I just thought it was my everyday normal kind of weird, apparently it was a bit more than that from the accounts I hear from my friends), and sleeping a lot because they made me sleepy, I've been working with my friends on a sled! Not just any sled though. You see this sled is a giant whale sled with a mini boat to go with it. We are making this sled to enter in the Cedar Ridge Wild and Wacky Card Board Sled Derby.

Here are a few photos of our work in progress.

All of the helpers include: Karla, Matt, Dustin, Joel, Amy, Katie, and then there's me.

You have to be careful with this whale because it has teeth and likes to eat people that say "glorious day" all the time. Joel was it's first victim. His memorial service will be held this Sunday at 2pm at Whitetail ski resort where we will also be holding the sled race at the same time. Once we've finished racing we're going to be cutting the whale open to retrieve his remains. I know it will be a sad day but it should also be a day to celebrate the going home of our dear friend.

Hope to see you there (whoever you are)!

Shooting Stars......

Well we made it back from Kentucky alright this morning at around 4am if I remember correctly. While yes, it was a short trip it was so much fun and I don't regret it a bit. I'm grateful for the time to see friends I hadn't seen in a while as well as enjoy the car ride with two friends I see pretty often. However, my favorite part of the whole trip was the moments I was on my own, one on one with God. I've spent more time talking to Him this past weekend then I probably have in the past 2 weeks all together.

On the second night of camping out Keri and I were walking back from the "facilities" when we looked up and saw the most beautiful sky full of stars that I had ever seen in person. We even saw a shooting star and when we told everyone back at the campsite what we had seen one of them they asked me what I wished for. I couldn't help but think that I am constantly wishing and hoping for things all the time and that if I were God I'd be kind of sick of all of it. Then we got into the debate about who it was that you made your wish to and if it was to something other than God than maybe you shouldn't be making wishes after all. In the end I didn't make a wish but I did say a small prayer:

Lord you know the desires of my heart.
Please help me to understand yours,
and do your will in all I do.

Last week at Bible study we were going through Romans 5. And in Romans 5 there is a verse about how "hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." I've been learning more and more this past year about how to put my hopes more in Christ than in my own personal abilities, wants and desires. Don't get me wrong I still want things really bad some times but I know that if that is what God wants for me it will happen in His time and His way.



Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from Kentucky

Kind of a creepy horror film picture of Keri standing at the edge of a cliff.


This was our tent the first night held up by some yarn attached to the car and cooler.


An amazing picture inside Mammoth Caverns of Andrews head (taken by Dustin).

Dustin was really bored in the back seat.

Kentucky here I come!

Today I leave for the beautiful state of Kentucky with two friends of mine to meet up with two other friends that we helped move to Missouri this past summer. I'm really looking forward to the chance to see them both again as I miss their company very much. I miss having the friendship of the girl whom I helped move because good girl friends are so rare for me. I usually find myself befriended to boys instead of girls. Although I've tried to understand why this is I still haven't come to any clear conclusions but I do know and appreciate how dear it is when you can find a friend your own gender that you can talk to meaningful things about and not just small talk. I can count on my hand the number of true girl friends that I've had in my life.

So anyways that all just to say that I'm really looking forward to this weekend's trip. We're going to be camping out in Kentucky, and driving around to several waterfalls, hiking, and visiting the nation's largest caverns. I've wanted to go to Mammoth Caverns national park since I was in elementary school. My science teachers sparked a great interest in rocks and geology at an early age so my mother would take us to local caverns whenever she could. I even took a Geology course in college just for fun, and the teacher was a friend's mom and I really enjoyed her a lot. Ask me what I learned and you'd be disappointed (well I am anyways at how little I remember).

I do love the colors and lines that nature creates in rocks and have always picked up pretty stones and brought them home with me whenever I go out. I have a beautiful stack of flat river stones that I picked up while kayaking. I would take a stone home with me every time I went kayaking but after a dozen or so I began to wonder what on earth I was going to do with all of the rocks that I was accumulating. So for now they sit on my mantle in a tower of beauty.

So as to appeal to the viewers visual interest as well I leave you with this picture of my roommate flying away with her superhero cape. It's the same blanket that I had in my first post. It's such a fun picture and I hope she doesn't mind me posting it here but this is me flying away to Kentucky!

Trusting in God