who's up for a little adventure??

hey friends... it's been a while... i don't make excuses for not writing sooner... it's not like any of you write more than i do... (trust me... i check) - j/k... which reminds me of a story...

one time when i was hanging out with friends in the northwest, (i'm really thinking it was emily and alyssa... erin may have been there too, or maybe she just heard the story afterwards...) i said something stupid and then i said, "j-k" - just to try it out... sometimes i say things that are funny... sometimes i say things that cause ridicule to come upon me... this particular expression fell spectacularly in the second category...

but i didn't give up on it... i thought, sometime, not too long from now, i will say it and everyone will say it with me... much like barney and the lemon law (for all you how i met your mother fans)... anyway, back to the point...

on the 8th grade retreat, i thought i may have my new opportunity... j-k will become the new catchphrase... so, i tried it out... and as soon as i said it, one of the 8th grade boys said, "l-o-l" - "YES," i thought, "victory is mine, not ridicule" and since then, it has become a new middle school phrase... but it doesn't stop with j-k... we usually say, "j-k, l-o-l, b-r-b" and then laugh and walk off... it's great... maybe it's just that i have a middle school mentality or that they're too scared to make fun of me... but it's definitely picked up... and i love it... they even started saying "j-k,j-k" - which means they're really not just kidding... or j-k-squared... which is definitely something i would say...

all that to say - if you love middle school kids as much as i do (which is a lot most of the time and not so much some of the time) and you want to hang out with some of the coolest middle schoolers i know for a week in july... let's just say july 10-15, hypothetically speaking, of course... in the northern part of south carolina... and you're older than 17, you should let me know... because there may be a camp opportunity in your future... j/k-j/k

you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose...

one time in high school, eric told us that the friends we had in high school that we thought we'd be b.f.f. with forever wouldn't necessarily be our friends past high school... and of course, being 17 or 18, we disagreed with him whole-heartedly... of course he was wrong because, if nothing else, he was an adult and they didn't know anything...

i hate to say that, at times, i agree with him... i do still keep in touch with friends from high school on a semi-regular basis... over time, however, the friendships have faded because of time or distance or change or a blend of the three...

then, in college, tim encouraged us to think about our 5... the 5 people that we could count on (not family) to drop everything and run if we asked them to... the 5 friends in our lives who, when crisis or joy happened in our lives, would run to our sides if we mentioned it... no questions asked...

sometimes i forget about who those five would be... and my list 6 years ago (the first time i made it) is not the list i would make today... things change, people change...

i was helping matt out by leading his h.s. bible study yesterday... and i don't really like teaching, so i wasn't too thrilled about it... but i do love the kids... and we were talking about mark 2 where jesus heals the paralytic whose friends have lowered him through the roof... and once again, i was reminded to stop and re-evaluate the friendships i had in my life...

in thinking through friendship, the first thought that comes into my head is not a scripture verse (don't judge me - if you know me, you know what i'm about to say)... it's a movie quote...

it happens sometimes. friends come in and out of our lives like busboys in a restaurant...

i've found friendship to be somewhat of a fleeting thing in many instances... however, there are those friends who have stuck by me - good times or bad... and it makes my heart smile knowing that they love me the same... i hope i've been that friends more times than i think i have... because i know it's not as many as i wish it was...

as the theme song from a great tv show says, "thank you for being a friend... your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant..."

first day with a kick...

thursday was my first day of work at the church... i decided to take it (really) easy on tuesday and wednesday... sleeping in, watching movies, reading... doing nothing, really...

on wednesday afternoon, i get a call from matt (high school/college minister) asking what i'm doing friday, thursday night and saturday morning... somewhere in my life i learned to ask questions fast and not to commit to anything before knowing the full story... yes, i'm still adventurous, but i'd like to know what the adventure is (or the rough outline of the adventure)...

he had a trip planned starting thursday night at 10:00 called "24 hours of madness" - and that's exactly what it was... so i told him if it was okay with john (my supervisor) that i'd go... and it was okay... so i got up thursday morning at 6:45 in order to get ready to go to work and be there by 8:00... worked until 4:00 (i was supposed to leave at 1:00 to go take a nap, but i rarely ever leave work when i'm supposed to if it's early)... went home and ran errands with amy, got back to the church at 8:45...

we got back about 9:30 friday night... i probably got about an hour worth of sleep total on the bus on the way home... and then i got home and went to sleep about 11:30 last night and definitely slept until 4:30 this afternoon...

here's what we did...

10:30 - left the church and made our way (only getting lost a couple of times) to climb nashville - over 20,000 square feet of rock-wall climbing...
1:00 (or so) - left climb nashville and went to laserquest in downtown nashville
4:00 - left laserquest and headed to cracker barrel somewhere near owensboro, kentucky...
8:30 (i think) - left cracker barrel and went to holiday world/splashin' safari... (theme and water park in santa claus, indiana)
4:30 - left holiday world and went to eat at ryan's in owensboro
9:30 - arrived back at the church (a little early)

so that's the rough outline of what we did... but it doesn't really do it justice... it was a ton of fun... here are the highlights:

*got to meet and hang out with a bunch of the high school kids... they are incredible... there were 47 members and visitors on the trip... and 5 "adults" - no one over 30 - 2 were college students...
*at laserquest, my name was laserqueen... someone said it sounded like a chat room name...
*holiday world is the best theme park ever... it really is amazing... it's not super expensive like every other theme park... they give out free sunscreen and soft drinks are unlimited and free all over the park... and the food is cheap... we gave each student $5 and it was enough for them to eat lunch on with money left over, usually... and it's clean and all the people that work there are nice...
*the raven, the legend and the voyage are the three roller coasters... the raven was awesome and then we went on the legend... and it was better... then... i had the experience that changed my life... the voyage is the second best roller coaster i've ever been on... and the 1st was 5 years ago... the magnum at cedar point and it barely beat out the voyage... and the voyage could be considered better because their dimensions are so close and it's wooden (the other was steel)... and wooden is awesome... i went three times in a row... and i was such a spaz about it... but it was awesome!!!
*we went into the glass blowing shop where there was definitely a sign that said, "we encourage intelligent touching" which could end up having it's own entry on my site because it made me laugh so much...
*all the way around it was just one of those experiences much like an mastercard commercial... it was priceless... a great experience...

on a completely random side note... at about hour 27 of me being awake, 16 of the trip - i found out that two of the students (twin brothers) are cousins of lindsey and beth little and jacob smythe... it was pretty cool...

i guess they know how to really "break people in" at clearview... :)