Life is a Highway - our SECOND roadtrip to CO this summer

Well, while all of you guys were doing things like going back to school, maybe being a little bit depressed on Monday (ok, MAYBE, and only some of you), meeting your teachers and deciding if you liked them, and all in all just ending your summer and going back to school, I was doing something else entirely. I was on my way to Colorado - and at least twice I was totally jamming out to Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts - my favorite song. And, for about two hours, I was sitting in the moving truck with my dad while the rain was so loud you could barely hear your own voice, and holding a napkin to a leak in the ceiling of the cockpit...umm....cabin...whats the word? Oh well. Where we were sitting. The second day, the coulds were so spectacular that I could hardly concentrate on Blue Like Jazz, my book; I was way too busy looking for dogs and race cars and castles. It was pretty sweet. And my dad was horrible at playing the game of looking for things in the coulds with me.

Pagosa Springs is a cool place; literally and to borrow the term. It was like, 50 degrees when we left. It is very small, everyone knows everyone else and is probably related to them. It was pretty cool to know people there (our real estate ageant's family - who rock) because they made us feel like we weren't tourists anymore. That is a feeling I love after France and Hawaii. It was also super cool to have our own house. Our house is pretty sweet, it is totally surrounded by pine trees on every side except the one facing the road, and it backs up to a canyon. The colors it is painted are pretty, and my room is also the coolest, even though it is the smallest. The only thing that wasn't cool about our whole trip was not being able to get in touch with any of my pals, and not having any mirrors or drawers. But it's all good.

It was great; we went with my dad's parents, who are totally southern and have an amazing Texas accent that anyone anywhere can figure out, and so we were with them picking stuff up all the time. Krista, you know what I'm talking about - I had an awful Texas accent like, the third day. Saying y'all, yonder, and slurring stuff together left and right. But the irony was, I was all the time trying to read Emma, by Jane Austen. Only a few of you may have read Jane Austen, and yikes I don't know how to explain her style. Think 1816, when Emma was published, and think about how the trend was clever, witty, articulate, and excessive language. It is very amusing to read, and you can usually barely pick up the drift, I kid you not. So I had this, "Dear, don't you tell me thet thayt qwicksotick (quixotic) yuuhng mayn isn't dern well irritatin' yeeew slietlee, ain't he?" OK, that was exaggerating. But I did say y'all more than once around my new friend Tiana, the real estate ageants daughter. Oh yeah, and I quit reading Emma halfway through because it was putting me to sleep and giving me head aches.

Tiana was so cool. I got to hang out with her a couple times, and I had so much fun. We did this thing called ice block sledding that I guess you all read about in Jake's blog. And I did that twice, because we went once with her family, and then the night before we left she invited me to go with her and her whole volleyball team, which was super sweet of her. That night I went down backwards and, I am not kidding, did four backflips in a row down the hill - and then almost threw up. It was totally wicked! We also did some stuff to some signs around town, it was so much fun and so wrong all at the same time. Yeah, never try that here, you might really get arrested. And I also got ot go to the hot springs in Pagosa with Tiana, and that was really cool - uh, hot. I am really thankful to have a friend there, and it makes me kind of want to move there becuase I had so much fun.

I have one, and only one more thing to talk about - the flaming sweetness of alpine sliding. I just read Jake's post, so I will not bore you all with another account of how sweet it was. But I do have a few tings to add. In addition to being very gracious when jake lost the race, I was also extreemly concerned about his well being. and the pinkish red spots where his good old white skin used to be when we got to the bottom. In my exclmatory inquiries as to his health (this is jane austen), I was put off and put off, and then when we were on the lift again, I asked him why he wouldn't let me ask him if he was ok. I had to laugh becuase I then realized he didn't want the lift people/rule enforcers to know he'd wiped out. Although they probably would have thought his injuries were sweet, because they were all about as nuts as him. And, I have to share with you a new phrse that I have claimed, it is flaming sweetness, a substttute for"oh my gosh" while trying to put words to how awesome it is to fly down a mountain. Yep. Colorado was cool.

The last part of our trip, the car ride home, was pretty awful for me. I had a sore behind from ice blocking the night before, and a sore neck from the awesome back flips. And the second day, you would not believe how sore my toungue was - I sucked on a whole package of sour patch kids. Like, never, ever, ever, ever, ever ect. do that! Like, if someone was trying to mug me, I would say "Hey freak, go suck on a bunch of sour patch kids!" And if they were especially awful, I'd tell them to then eat a lemon.

There you have it, pals. Happy reading, and it's good to be home.

It Gonn' Rain - bybcs 2006

A few of you may be wondering about the title of this entry - I have a pretty cool reason for it, though. Back Yard Bible Clubs is a long standing HCBC tradition - it is like VBS, except the teenagers teach it in clubs at people's houses, and it is way more evangelistic than for kids of the church. This was my first year to participate, and I was super excited, especially after bootcamp. So my team was Brian Hill (the funny, sarcastic, and awesome leader (ok Brian, if you ever read this that was just for you, I hope you feel loved)) and James Dykoff. It was pretty much the most awesome, most fun, and best team (YEEEAAH, cottonheadedninniemuggins!). But starting on the first day, something I will either always cherish or always regret happened - probably the latter. Brian had to quote something from family man - "now a weather report from Wally the black weather man, Wally?" - "It gonn' raaain-" "Thank you Wally." I am sure that no one that hasn't heard Brian tell it and james laugh at it or vice versa will never get it, and that's ok. But that was the phrase of the week, like it or not. Everyday, over and over, never losing any, even the most tiny bit, of it's humor. And every time they made me laugh, which I admit with shame. But it was one of our jokes that was what kept us either sane...Or maybe insane, enough to make it through the week.

The other side of the title to this entry is about prayer. We started with prayer all together during the "concert of prayer" on Sunday night before the week of bybcs, but I am sure that prayers were going up long before that. In fact, the prayers began at least at boot camp. But during the week, we had a very big whiteboard that we posted requests and answers on all through the day, and they stayed up all week. Looking back, the most incredible thing that I learned during that week is how incredible prayer is - how incredibly powerful, in control, and all knowing God is - he answered every one, and almost every one was with the positive. Just open of the many things we prayed for and about was the weather - that it wouldn't rain, that we wouldn't fry. And God was faithful, because not one time in the whole week was our joke, "it gonn' rain", true!

Prayer. How awesome is prayer? How incredible is it that Jesus actually listens to us, even though He is SO much, in every way, greater and holier that we could possibly imagine? Even though we are scum, ants, dirt, paper airplanes? (ok, I will explain that one later, girls, if anyone remembers that, tell me!) I got to pray one extremely special prayer during the week; it was a prayer with two girls, Michelle and Rachael, when they accepted Jesus's grace and forgiveness, and asked to have a new life. It was pretty cool. And one thing that I got to tell them during out little huddle was about what prayer is, and how to do it, so they could talk to Jesus for themselves and ask him for forgiveness.
Another time that prayer was special to me was on thursday, which was definitely the toughest day. I came home that night feeling down and defeated, and sat with my Bible and prayer, and God spoke a lot of truth to me through his word. That was pretty cool. And Friday was awesome. (even though I am pretty sure some kid gave me swimmers ear by giving me the one-too-many squirt in the ear - it was all good, though.)
Another thing was how cool it was to pray with my team before every club. And during it, especially during the lessons; when I would talk and see the kids zoning, or when I scrambled my words, or when some kid was listening. Or, when Brain totally missed his cue, just kidding.

Yep, Great Adventure, even though my part was very little, was a life changing and totally incredible experience. While I was telling little kids about how incredible Jesus is, He was teaching me that myself - pretty cool.