Random thoughts for the day

*I love making lists.
-->speaking of lists, Saturday night I put a check mark on my life list. Thank you, Lifehouse. You were wonderful.

*My love for Spanish is BACK. I think it really all depends on the teacher I have, this semester I really like my prof. I was feeling rather adventurous today and I went to Barnes and Noble to look for a book to read in Spanish, I was hoping to find a teen/easy read book, but most of the books they had were the classics..I better read those in English first. Hmmph.

*I have a love/hate relationship with living alone and also not having a tv.

*I finally found a steady job. I am starting to get nervous because I haven't had an 8am-6pm full schedule since high school. We'll see how this goes.

*I can't wait to get my homework done so I can:
A: Watch last night's episode of The Bachelor Pad.
B: Start my new book.
C: Reward myself with a nice cup of dark hot chocolate--courtesy of Sharon. :)

theme verse for the summer.

"And if I have faith so as to move mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:2

Another late evening vent

I have a wonderful life, don't get me wrong. I very much appreciate everything that I have, but this is my outlet and my place to vent..this is what happens when you live by yourself, you vent to your computer. (I do have friends, I swear :) )
I just have to get some things out before I can move on with my night.

1. I hate when I have met someone three times before and they proceed to introduce themselves to me again. Happens every single week at church. Happened 3 times tonight.

2. I am so tired of being at UNL. I am a religion major at a public school..enough said.
I so badly want to transfer to a Christian/Lutheran school where I can just get my degree in Youth and Family Ministry. That's not in the cards, yet it's still in my silly imagination. I just really don't understand why it costs such a ridiculous amount to get a degree in ministry when you get paid so little. Don't get me wrong, I don't care about how much money I will make, I just can't get an education like that and then pay it off with that kind of salary.

3. I am already tired of school. I think if I were studying things of interest to me, I would like school a lot more.

4. Why can't I read your mind?

5. Why can't I just learn to be more patient in this process?

*Thankful I have 143095 good things in my life for every annoyance on this list.

Being back in Lincoln this week has reminded me how incredibly blessed I was to have such an amazing summer. Missing camp terribly.

Sittin' loose in the saddle [trying]

One of the greatest pieces of advice I have ever heard came from my friend, Becca.
We were chatting about my future. For those of you who don't know...I don't really like thinking about the future. I'm not in love with where I'm at in life right now either, though, so sometimes I want to think about the future. Hmm...tricky. anyway...

"Sit loose in the saddle." is what Becca told me to do.

I don't have my perfect life plan mapped out. I don't have a specific goal in mind. I can't say that I've ever been one of those girls who could picture themselves working here, marrying him and naming their kids such and such. I've always thought that was rather odd..but then I suppose my expectations aren't too high, right? I'm not completely clueless as to what I want to do in life, but I don't have any specific ideas.
I have complete trust in God that He will reveal to me what it is I am supposed to do, but sometimes (like now) I am completely impatient and frustrated.

I feel like I am wasting my time sitting at school studying things that I will never, ever use in my life. (Spanish has the potential to be useful, though) Then I get even more frustrated when I have to deal with the homework and trying to get good grades for classes that will never be of use to me.

I need to keep reminding myself to "sit loose in the saddle" and just take life one day at a time. I don't have the perfect plan mapped out, but God sure does. And it is guaranteed that His is a lot better than mine.

PS--Thanks, Becca :)

Current thoughts

Current thoughts:

--Why do I always double book myself? I have days where I have absolutely nothing scheduled, then I have days where I have to be 3 places at once. You can tell I'm still getting back into the swing of things.

--Putting tv episodes online is seriously the greatest idea since sliced bread. I don't have cable so I am happy I can use the internet to catch up on my shows, and kill my boredom.

--Why is it that when I imagined my new life, I pictured myself as being very productive? Who was I kidding? (Don't worry Mom, my homework for today is done!) I just mean that I pictured myself doing homework, working out, reading and crafting a lot more than I have been. I guess I have only lived here for 4 days, though.

--I am incredibly excited for this weekend. I get to see Paisley. I get to see Lifehouse. I get to Lindsey, one of my very favorite people from camp. What a jam packed 3 days.

That's all for now.

Bathroom art.

Discovered this in a bathroom while exploring downtown with a good friend.
I just so happened to be with the person who needed to see this the most.
Life is funny like that.



Seriously, when?

Go have fun, people.

Goodbye Summer.

Summer is officially over.

School started today, I had Spanish and astronomy this morning.
Two awkward moments...
It never fails that the only time I get called on is when I don't know the answer. I bet that was a great first impression on my new prof. Whoops..

Number two:
I walked into my 11:30 lecture at 11:29. (I hate being late, but my class before is across campus) I had to climb over people to find a seat...then, I sit down and try to bring up my desk from between the seats..I could hardly move it because the guy next to me was um..rather large and blocking my desk. Needless to say, that was very awkward and I felt really bad, then I was sitting through class wondering how I was going to get out of my desk without creating another awkward moment. I ended up leaving the desk down and just escaped. Hmm..

Yesterday:
I went to church, then Sharon came over and we went to the pool and made a Target run so I could get curtains. The white walls were killing me..
Then, Jordan came to Lincoln and stayed with me!
We watched Steel Magnolias and pigged out on ice cream and popcorn. Shocking, right?
She also helped me decorate and rearrange my new apartment, it's looking a million times better. (Thanks, Jord!)

Now I need to finish unpacking, go get school supplies and start homework.
I hate the sound of that word.

Adios, amigos.

Moving Day

It is officially moving day.

New year, new start.

Details Sunday.

Summer Summary

Wow. I really stink at updating. Everyday I keep wanting to update on my daily activities but I tell myself I can't do that until I update you on the rest of my summer...which frankly will take forever and probably just make me depressed that it's over. So...

In a (somewhat long) nutshell:
Working at camp was the absolute best thing I have ever done in my life.
I learned so much about life and about myself.
My faith grew tremendously.
I realized that everything you need is in Creation and in people.
I loved my life without technology.
I made amazing friends.
I learned to live a lot simpler.
I tried new things such as high ropes and horses.
(I will never get on another horse as long as I live, but hey I tried.)
I grew so much and became a lot more secure with who I am.
I experienced many "God moments" and constantly stood in awe of Creation.

Now camp was not always perfect,
there was a not-so-wonderful situation towards the end that I thought had just ruined the whole summer, but without that experience, I would not have grown quite as much. and to be honest, I realized that had this "situation" not been there before camp, I wouldn't have even applied to work there.
Yes, I did the unthinkable. I followed a boy. [insert sigh of disapproval here.]
Obviously, it didn't end up working out. (which I am okay with now)
But..had I not done that, I would not have had this life changing summer.
Funny how God works sometimes, isn't it?
He knew I'd fall for His trick of putting this person in my life at that time.
Well Big Guy, you were right..again.
I am so thankful for every situation I went through this summer, good or bad.


Basically, I will never be the same.
At least that is my hope, I don't ever want to forget what I have learned or the friendships that I made.
As my boss says, we were on a "spiritual high" this summer.
It scares me to death that I can feel myself coming off of this "high", but I am so thankful to have a few camp friends in Lincoln to remind me of my amazing summer.



Not exactly the detailed posts of what I planned, but now it's done and you can expect daily updates again!

Silly technology

Just spent the last 30 or so minutes writing a new post.
It got deleted.
Sadly enough, it was about how annoying and frustrating technology can be and how peaceful life is without it.
Then my post got deleted & it really erked me.
Which once again, reminds me how silly technology is.
Go enjoy Creation.
I'll rewrite this tomorrow.

It's time to face the music.
I can't go back to camp.
I might as well get excited about moving back to Lincoln and stop trying to turn back time.

I miss camp every day...a lot.
A friend of mine baked s'mores cupcakes tonight, and as I was eating it, I cried.
Had I been at camp, I would be eating a real s'more because Tuesday is "fun campfire" night.
Pathetic, right? Lea's ammmazing s'mores cupcakes.

Also, while at her casa, I was able to see the stars, which I haven't looked at since camp.
(too many trees in my neighborhood)
It reminded me that even though I am not physically at CJH, I can still take it with me.
Yay, God.
:)


Good night, all.

Update from late May-June 2nd.

Miss Paisley Joan :)

Back to the beginning.
In May, I finally had the conversation with a certain someone that had been two years in the making. Things didn't exactly end up as I had hoped. This happened the week before I left for camp. My niece was also due to be born while I was at staff training and I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to leave camp to be there with my sister. I also didn't think I was ready to give up technology, air conditioning, and being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted.
Needless to say, I was not excited to leave.
[Now that I'm home, I'd give anything to be back there.]

Staff training started, and I thankfully had a few familiar faces there to greet me. When I first arrived everyone was happy and peppy and playing games, to be honest...I thought they were a little weird. I wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into. Now I'm just as "weird" as I once thought they were.

The first few days, I definitely cheated on the "no cell phone" rule, but my sister was about to have a baby, can ya blame me? I had waited and waited to ask my boss if I would be able to leave once I got the much anticipated phone call from my sister. I was so scared to ask her, I knew that if she said no, I would have a mini-breakdown right then and there. I finally got the guts to ask her, and she said "Of course, you HAVE to leave!" She even offered an extra day off to me, but I knew that would just make it harder to go back. This is turning into a longer post than necessary..ramble, ramble, blabla..

Paisley was born. Not quite sure I have ever been so happy in my life as I was the second I laid eyes on that beautiful little girl. Such a miracle babies are. There's no denying that it was one of the biggest "God moments" of my summer, and my life for that matter. It's amazing to think that God created her and He knows everything about her and has a plan for her life already, just as He does for yours and for mine.


Next post--staff training: part 2

I'm off to Starbucks with Lea.
:)

Sneak Peek

I have no idea where to start.
I wish anything I wrote could capture how absolutely beautiful, challenging, heart breaking, amazing and blessed my summer was.
In a nutshell, and at the risk of sounding very cliche..these past few months have changed me.
So many different events happened that built up to this.

Here is a sneak preview of what I will be posting about in the upcoming weeks:
(I figure if I write them down here, I am more likely to actually post them.)

In the very beginning, there was a bit of heartbreak..which ended up being a huge blessing in disguise.
Then staff training started.
Paisley was born.
Campers came.
I forgot about the outside world.
Amazing friendships were formed.
I lived. I loved. I learned.
I had my heart smushed.
I grew.
I danced, sang, taught, learned, laughed, prayed and played--all day long, every day.

It was the absolute best experience of my life.
Now that it's over, I'm not gonna lie to you--I'm scared to death.

Lack of bloggage.

Hello friends,
I have been awful at updating my blog for the past 3 (yes, three!) months.
I can't wait to start spending some time telling you my wonderful stories from my wonderful summer...
but that won't be happening until tomorrow.

Today, I am spending time getting crafty for my dear friend Lea's birthday gift.
Camp rekindled my love for getting creative. (Yay!)
On today's agenda--
paper bead necklace and a sweet patterned bleach dye shirt :)


Time to go unpack from wedding week, do some laundry,
and get crafty!