Conference Countdown= Five Days!

It's that time of year again... time for Stuebenville Northwest! My church homies and I have started getting ready for it. Getting ready basically means bonding. Like the lock-in at my house last night. And fundraising. Because we are all broke high schoolers. The conference is literally only five days away. And I am excited for it this time :)

We had a lock-in for the teens at my house last night so everybody could get to know each other better before we all go and bawl our eyes out every day/ laugh like freaks at dumb things next week. We started out with adoration/praise and worship, then we came back to my house for the debriefing. After that we played some night Frisbee (dangerous, especially when you don't have a light up Frisbee :) and some link tag (more dangerous), finishing up with a never ending game of "I have never" (the most dangerous game, like, ever in my life). I have a bruised knee. Why? From Connor slamming his knee into mine as we both attempted to sit in the same seat. I have a sore rib. Why? From Michael hip checking me in the side as I (successfully, I might add :) attempted to steal his chair. By the end of the night, people were falling over backwards in their chairs from the intensity (aka Jenn LOL :) and having ultimate face-offs to see who could sneakily slide their booty into the spot before the other person. It was awesome :)

After that girls slept downstairs, boys upstairs. Apparently, the girls were being "loud" and the boys were trying to eavesdrop on us. The next morning they confessed that they picked up bits and pieces of our conversation, which sent us girls in a panic trying to recall what we were talking about (since of course we were talking about them :) :) :) JK :) It's okay though because we accidentally got back at them before we'd even known what they were trying to do- We quietly snuck upstairs in the morning to go for a coffee run, but the door from the stairs was squeaking really loudly, which made us all giggle, then Maggie accidentally knocked over the broom, which went crashing down and woke the poor boys up. Oh well. At least we brought them coffees home :)

After breakfast, everybody went down to the church for a car wash to raise money to pay for the expenses. We had a blast, making fools of ourselves waving signs and pointing arrows on the street corners and making McDonald's runs. It was also the perfect opportunity to soak people while having a good excuse. We had way too much fun doing that I think, although now, along with my injured knee and ribs, my legs and arms are sore from the six hours of washing cars :) Oh well. I may not get out of bed tomorrow, but it was fun while it lasted.

 

Justin, Kim, and me chilling out at the car wash.

Just FYI, Justin actually wasn't' supposed to be in the picture. He totally photo bombed us, yet somehow made it look like he was meant to be there all along :)

This entire year, I have been so blessed to make friends within my church. I've always had plenty of non-Catholic friends, but now, I'm starting to get really strong relationships with people of my same faith. And I love it. Being able to talk about my faith without explaining it has been so freeing. Even without having gone to the conference yet, I can tell that we are going to have a good time.

I have a feeling it's gonna be a good summer.

"We don't even have to try, it's always a good time!" Owl City

One wild week

My true colors always come out during VBS. For some reason, every year when I get on that stage in front of all those kids and teach them about Jesus (complete with rockin' dance moves!), I feel content and happy. This year, though, as I've become more comfortable on stage, I felt like I could bring out my wild side more  than ever. It helped that the theme was "Weird Animals" :) This year I really stepped out more than I was used to, as my fellow stage leader offered me the opportunity to take more of work load, which I gladly accepted. However, being the focal point for these kids proved to be a challenging experience, but definately a growing one.

I had to learn to laugh at myself when I blanked out on what I was supposed to say and the whole room was silent as my eyes desparately searched in my handbook for the next sentence. I had to get over my fear of my voice cracking as I belted the "whoaaaaa"s into the microphone as we sang together about how we wanted to be like Jesus. Yet at the end of the day, I realized that those kids couldn't care less about whether I forgot what I was supposed to say for one second (or ten ;) or if I hit a wrong note (which, thankfully, never happened... I think). What really matters is the fact that those kids were learning about God's love through me. For some of those kids, the one week they had at Vacation Bible School will be one of the only times they will hear about the depth of love God has for them. And what I found was that the more the focus was on God instead of the mess-ups, the more things fell into place amidst the mistakes. When I was singing loudly, it didn't matter if I hit the right note because when the kids heard me singing, they matched my volume (not kidding!). The louder I sang, the louder they sang. It was awesome!

The last day of VBS was bittersweet. 

This was taken on Friday at the finale while we were doing our last experiement of the week.

In memory of "weird animals" I decided to wear my cheetah dress...

 

...Aaaaand paint my face like a cat. The kids totally loved it :)

Me and my sister Lizzy acting... I was going to say weird, but this is actually fairly normal for us :)

Lizzy graciously woke up early to paint my face with black eyeliner.

At least it washed off easier than the Robin Hood beard we drew on with black marker a few years ago (don't ask!)

Rebecca, me, and Jacob in our awesome blue VBS shirts.

Right after VBS ended on Friday, we packed up the car and headed to Lyden to visit my sister and brother-in-law for a week and a half. You may be wondering if I washed off my cat face before we went on this trek. The answer is no. I didn't. And we went to Costco. In  another city, thankfully :) I can't tell you how many smiles, laughs, comments, questions, and 'you are creepy' looks I got that day. My favorite as I passed was "Free kitties?" I got a good laugh over that one, and the older man replied, "What, I had to say something :)" The woman checking reciepts wouldn't stop meowing at me. I never realized what a great conversation starter it was to look like a cat. I've never talked to that many people I didn't know in a single day.

When we finally got to Stephanie and Philip's, it was time to work! Stephanie is 8 months pregnant and there were things that needed to be done to get ready for baby Vander Veen, so we brought five pairs of extra hands to get the work done. We got so much completed it was awesome! And the funny part is, even though we were working, we all had a blast! I probably gained ten pounds from all the dessert we had while we were there. Hopefully I burned it all off running around setting off fireworks on the 4th. Seriously, I hope it is annual to go to Lynden for the 4th of July because my brother-in-law knows his fireworks! He helped us pick some out, including smoke bombs (we lit off all 72 :), sparklers, the big guys that burst in the air, and pretty much like everything awesome. It was epic.

Another really special event that happened was the first Andersen BABY SHOWER! This is the first grandbaby and nephew on our side, and we are SO excited for that little boy to enter this world and enter our lives completely once he's born. I know Stephanie and Philip are going to be the most loving parents to that little guy, and he is going to have the best aunts and uncles and grandparents ever because we already love him so much. The shower was small, with just a few of Stephanie's close friends from the area. We played a few games, ate some cheesecake, and celebrated the life of my little nephew. 

Overall, life has been wild. But a good wild, you know? Like the "I wasn't expecting life to be like this, but I like it" wild. The sparatic, adventerous, contented wild side where you know in your heart that the loops and turns and craziness has really changed you for the better and made you cling to God like never before. The realization has come that the cage I'm lived in was one that I created for myself, but God was calling me into the wilderness of freedom. And I love it there.

"I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess." Walt Disney