Wedding Bells

Monday morning after girls camp I headed down the Athens for a visit before I'm gone for the summer.  But I always post about my trips down there and it's always the same thing.  Hang out with my friends, do something with Devin, and that's about it.  Although this time since I was there during the week I got to go to a Zumba class at my old gym.  It was so fun to go again! 

But since I always write about that, on to something different.  Friday I drove to Effingham, IL from Athens to meet up with the rest of the family for my cousins wedding.  It was SO fun!!  Fun does not describe.  I drove away wishing we all could have stayed longer.  My family from Phoenix was there (it was one of them getting married) and we hardly ever see them.  It was great having all the family in a hotel together.  But like I said, it just didn't last long enough.  Today for lunch most of us went to the Firefly Grill.  If you're ever in Effingham I would recommend it.  It is a farm to table restaurant where they either grow their own food or buy it locally.  Tasty morsels!  (That was for you, Cass)

My cousin Trevor and his new wife Amanda.  This picture was the first time I met her but she seemed really sweet.  Did I mention it was fun?

Purity

Our theme for this years girls camp was purity.  It was deep, it was intense and it was Sprit filled.  From the very beginning we could just feel God moving and taking over the camp.  Saturday night after our skits were done we had some time before the snack was ready so we decided to sing a little bit.  The very last skit we saw was done to Chris Rice's "Come to Jesus".  It was very moving and touching, moreso even because the girls doing it were so overcome with emotion that they were actually crying on the stage, not just pretending to cry.  One of the songs we sang was "Come, Holy Spirit" and at that point I felt like I could almost see the Spirit physically touching so many people.  It was after that that several girls finally decided to repent and give their lives fully to Christ.  I realize that some people feel like making that decision during a particular emotional and mountain top time isn't necessarily wise.  But I also know that in Acts there was one day where 3000 people made that decision.  Talk about emotion and mountain tops.  I have every confidence that these girls were completely real in their choice to follow the Lord and not doing it on a whim, and watching that happen was so amazing and powerful.

Anyway, on a much lighter note, camp was Awesome!  I had a great group of girls- shout out to the Pure Fashion cabin- and a great co-counselor too.  My camera is old and I think my flash was on for these outside pictures so they really didn't turn out all that great but you can see who was there at least.  The scarves were just because we were the fashion cabin, although neither Katie nor myself are very fashionista like so we're not sure how we ended up with that name for our cabin!

We did some pretty fun things, including a "Minute to Win It" contest.  I have some good shots of my girls doing their event but if it was me, I would be embarrased to have those on here so I shall refrain:)  One of the events was to bounce a ping pong ball on the table and have it stick to the bread with peanut butter.  We got a certain number of points for each event we completed.  Our cabin didn't win but it sure was fun to do it!

We had 33 churches, 8 states and 4 countries represented.  Erin D, perhaps you should consider coming next year just for the sake of giving us another country when it comes time to take greetings:)

I DID remember to take my camera to the lake this year, however, I did NOT remember to take it to the other side of the lake with me and it was just too far to go back and get it.  So, I have no pictures of the blob or anything like that:(

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Athens for a few days so here's to a good night of sleep tonight!

Coming To A Close

My days of working at the CILA's are quickly dwindling.  I have four more nights of work but only one of those is with the ladies I'm usually with.  I've kinda gotten shuffled around these last few days.  While I won't miss being on a second shift schedule, I will miss the residents.  Very much so.  I stopped and got some cards for my girls that I'll give them on Tuesday (my last day), and while I was looking through Hallmark, I started getting a little emotional over saying goodbye to them.  Then I got to work this afternoon and heard the news that a resident at another house had died yesterday afternoon.  Even though I didn't know her very well it's still sad.  And the girls all were sad tonight too about losing a friend.  After having some struggles in the beginning, I can now honestly say that I feel privileged and blessed to have worked with the people I've worked with the last six months.  One thing that kind of stinks is that even just in the last month I've met and gotten to know a lot more other staff than I had the first five months of working there.  Just as soon as I make some new friends, I leave.  Such is life I guess and I haven't ruled out going back to work there.  As of now I'm not really committing to much of anything until after Mexico.  Maybe I mentioned that before.

Otherwise, I'm counting down the days and getting so excited for girls camp!  Last summer was so crazy with remodeling the preschool and moving back and everything else that it was kind of hard to get into camp.  This year I've invested a lot more prayer and energy towards it and I'm so excited!  It's gonna be good.... I can feel it in my bones:)

Well, I'm off to find a little snack before I go to bed!