The Varelas are Coming!!!

yayyyy!!! they'll be here tonighttt!!!

Graduation Party!

Here are some pictures from the graduation party! had SUCH a great time. thank you everyone for coming!

Random Findings

So in the process of moving all of the stuff from one attic to the other we have come across some fun stuff. one of these fun things is a box full of all school stuff of ours (katie, greg, and me). near the top of this box was what is titled "Lucy's March Journal" covered by drawings of what i assume to be balloons. I think that if anyone really wants to know the true Lucy, the real me, who i really am, they should read this "journal". The journal is from march 1993, so i was six years old. here are a few selections for your reading pleasure:

March 1 "Hawaii"
My mom and dad whent to Hawaii with out me and katie did to and i hated it realle did. I whanted to go with them allat but thay did not take me."

March 2 "Pooshing"
Pooshing is not nice at all. I do not poosh no madr whot I do not poosh. And human football to, that is'int nice ethere I hate it.

March 9 "Tieing My Shoe"
Tieing my shoe! It is not fun. I hate it I relly do hate it. I do not like tieing my shoe! it is boring! I just relly do hate it I do.
(maybe this is why i always slip my shoes on/off!)

March 11 "Table"
Table is fun because it is fun it is just fun do you want to no why because i just do ok that's why I do like it ok.
(what "table" was i'm not sure, but apparantly i just liked it, ok!)

my spelling might be better today, but that's about it!

Home!

Well, i am officially DONE WITH COLLEGE!! i am in the process of packing and cleaning up before grabbing some lunch and hitting the road! i am really looking forward to the next few weeks; helping with the new house, the varelas coming, hanging out, and all that fun stuff! can't wait to see everyone!

Finals Week

Well, it's your typical finals week around here so far. everyone has been busy studying and getting ready for their finals. i took a few days to rest my brain starting friday and through the weekend. i got mostly all of my christmas shopping done and got some good time with people this weekend, so that was good. on friday street and i went down to staunton to go to the mall and then we went to the baja bean, which is a really good california style mexican place, for dinner. a couple of our guys friends from the toolbox met up with us so that was fun. it was good to get out of harrisonburg for a little while, even though staunton is not far at all. on saturday i went out with street and sarah for lunch and then braved the roads for some christmas shopping, which i did almost all of at one place which was awesome. on saturday night we went to the theater on campus and saw "across the universe" which is a musical with all beatles songs. i really enjoyed it. yesterday morning i went with daniel morgan to the church that he has been going to, called valley church. i thought it was ok, it is your normal non-denominational kind of place i guess. i enjoyed what the pastor had to say, and it was refreshing being somewhere new. then last night we had the young life christmas party with the committee and all the leaders. it was really fun, as always.

I started studying this morning and spent a good amount of time preparing for the two finals that i have tomorrow. one of them is GSCI (science) and we can bring a sheet of paper with anything on it we want. so i spent some time this afternoon giong through all of the chapters and writing down pretty much every formula haha. my other final is in media and politics, which will be challenging. i have been skimming through the chapters and readings and need to go over all my class notes. overall i'm not stressed or worried at all... i think i got all of that out of my system last week and the week before. i have a final on wednesday, and then we're having a christmas party for club since we couldn't have it last week. so i'll be home on thursday!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an Announcement to Make

We are proud to announce that the SoupBowl has been named the winner of the 2007 SoupBowl/Toolbox Christmas Decorating Contest. The judging took place at 6:45pm on Thursday December 6th. Judges included the Campbells, the Browns, and the Johnsons who were impartial and scored the houses according to overall appeal, tackiness, and design. When the final scores were tabulated, the Toolbox was given 179 points and the SoupBowl had 185, so it was definitely a close race. The SoupBowl was given points for thoughtfulness and variety while the Toolbox had the wow effect of blinking lights choreographed with christmas music. Here are some pictures and a short video documenting the night:


The SoupBowl Pre-Lighting:

The SoupBowl Post-Lighting:

The Toolbox:

The Crowd of Judges and Contestants taking in the splendor of it all:

The Competition:
Here is a video of the boys' light show:

WAHOOOOO!!!

Well, it's official people, i have turned in my paper!!! and i have also attended my last class of college (not including finals). CRAZYYYY!!!

Now it's time for some fun! we are having a christmas decorating contest with the guys across the street, and tonight it the judging. there are a few families coming over to be the official judges and we're going to have hot chocolate and everything.

it snowed up here on tuesday night, it was really fun waking up to a white world on wednesday morning. but, it was kind of a bummer because the county schools got canceled, so we weren't able to have our club christmas party last night. we decided that we're giong to do it next week instead. i love the first snow because that means it's really winter! anddd i hope that it snows around christmas, it makes it seem so much more like christmas i think.

can't wait to be home!

deep breath

well, my paper is not completely done, but the bulk of it is! i am at 24 pages i think, so i am not worried about it being long enough anymore. i have to go back and fine tune everything, make sure that i have included everything that needs to be and formatted it correctly. there is also one more section i have to complete (methodology... and don't ask what that is because i'm still not completely sure haha).

our group presentation on media coverage of john mccain is tomorrow at 9:30, it will be nice to have that out of the way.

then i have a music test on wednesday morning, a paper in my hinduism class thursday morning, and then my big research paper is due thursday afternoon! and then i can take a day or two off before starting to study for finals! i have two on tuesday and then one on wednesday, then i will be done! one weeeeeeek!!

love you all!

Well things have been going pretty well, i am actually starting to feel less stressed/overwhelmed... just a little bit though haha. i have about 10 or so pages written on my paper, confident that i will get most of the rest of it written this weekend. i am hoping to have it all done by tuesday so i can spend wednesday editing and revising.

i actually have an interview for an on campus secractary job this afternoon at 1 so we'll see how that goes.

we had out last official club of the semester on wednesday, and it went really well, it was fun. next week we are having a christmas party.

well i think that's about it for now. love to all!

writing away...

well it's tuesday and i'm already tired! definitely ready for the next two weeks to be OVER!

i have the first few pages of my paper done, we have another group meeting tomorrow, and i've already spent enough time at the library! things are going well thought, and everything seems manageable right now. so that is good. and i've even had a little bit of down time each day to relax. i am being sure to get to bed early each night, and not work myself sick. i still have some time, so i am using it.

probably not too much blogging this week or next week.

love to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am so thankful for so many things it would be impossible to list them. Some of the most important things that i am thankful for are my mom and dad, my salvation, my sister and her beautiful family, my brother, all of my family, my friends, my housemates, my young life team, and so much more. thank you everyone for who you are and what you mean to me!

love

Pictures

Here are some pictures from this weekend:


This is all the Spotswooders on the bus on the way home

This is a group of us girls during our speed frisbee golf game on saturday:

This is me with one of our senior girls Monica:

Worn OUT

well, we got back successfully from an INCREDIBLE weekend at rockbridge at 2 oclock. Pete took all of the leaders to lunch at o'charleys which was great. then sarah and i came home and put in a movie... we were the only ones home and we both fell asleep near the end of the movie (around 6:30 or so) and we just woke up... it's 9 o'clock... woops.

i'll write more about the weekend later, i'm off to do a little school work and then go to bed for real.

love

Here we GO

Well, we leave for Rockbridge at 6:30 tonight for a crazy weekend.

The camp will definitely be at its carrying capacity... probably over it actually. there is talk of heaters on the porch of the dining hall because there may not be room for everyone to eat inside, people are having to sleep on the floor without a matress (they have lot of extra mattresses for people to sleep on on the floor, but even all of those will be used). From Spotswood there are about 55 coming, about 27 girls. This weekend is going to be intense! So many people, so much going on. Pray that things are run well, that organization will be kept, that we will all fit in the club room, that there is enough food, and that highschoolers' lives are changed!

We'll be back around 2 on Sunday.
Love you all!

Fall Weekend!

Wow, two posts in one week, are you guys impressed? Hope so!

This week has mostly been about gearing up for fall weekend this weekend. We're heading to rockbridge on friday evening through sunday afternoon. It is always a fun trip, very tiring, but very fulfilling. It will be nice to be able to get some time at home the following week to rest up for the rest of the semester.

Some of the housemates are driving up to maryland today to go to a chick-fil-a opening :-D i am really bummed that i can't go, but i have club tonight, and class all day tomorrow. they have promised to share their coupons with me since i am almost out of mine.

my group project for Media and politics is going well, we met on monday night to talk about our papers and it seems like we'll be able to make some connections about the JOhn McCain campaign.

Sarah's parents are here with some of their friend from when they went to JMU and we're about to go get some lunch, so that will be fun. I am also excited for our military lab this afternoon... we are jumping into the pool with our clothes on to learn the combat water survival test :-D. Then i have club tonight where i am running a game of turkey bowling. i still need to go get a frozen turkey from the store...

i can't wait to come home for thanksgiving!

Round the corner into Winter

This weekend was a lot of fun and a good break. On friday John Hutt called me and said that he didn't have to work so he wanted to come up and hang out. He got up here jsut in time to come to leadership with me and sarah and then he came with me to the Spotswood football game. After that we came back to the house and played some games with a good size group of people.

On saturday morning was the annual Young Life Turkey Bowl. We all get together and play some football on the quad. I went over there and said hey, but then made my way to the library to work on my media politics paper. In the afternoon Sarah, Mel and I went with our friends matt and ernie to west virginia and shot their guns (there is a shooting range at the george washington national forest). It took about 30 minutes to get there, and you have to go into the mountains. We rounded a corner and then there was snow everywhere! It turned into winter all of a sudden, it was great! It was really fun, and i actually hit a few skeet! Then we came back and got ready to go to Charlottesville for our friend brandon's birthday. Two cars drove down to c-ville and we had dinner and got some drinks (sarah and i were drivers so we just ate :-D). we called Emily Wade and Kim mascher and they met up with us for a few minutes, so it was fun to get to see them. It was really fun, c-ville is a fun town!

I finished up my media politics paper yesterday after church and then came home and we made a big dinner all together (all 8 of us, so it was really fun).

This week i am mainly jsut gearing up for fall weekend which is this weekend down at rockbridge. Can't wait to see everyone for thanksgiving!

FFF@F

Well, this weekend at Sarah's Fall Family Fun at the Farm was really fun! We drove down there on friday afternoon, arriving at the land around 6:30. It took about 3 hours door to door, so it was a very pleasant trip.

It was dark by the time we got there so I didn't really see the outside/scenery on friday night, but sarah showed me around the house and then we joined the rest of the family around the table for dinner. We did a few run throughs with the names/relationships of everyone, so when i was introduced i had a general idea of who everyone was. after dinner the kids (ages circa 10-22) went outside and played some hide and seek for a while. i came in after a little while because it was too cold. The house has a great wood stove to stand next to and warm up.

Sarah and i slept on an air mattress in the bedroom on the main level of the house in sleeping bags and blankets. We borrowed our friends sleeping bags, and the one i was using was the kind that you can zip all the way up to your chin, and it has a hood that you can put over your head. so i was nice and warm :-D.

On Saturday we woke up to find out that on of sarah's aunts had brought some horses! so some of us took turns getting on and exploring the property, it was really fun. sarah and i also did some exploring on their four wheelers :-D. the weather was so beautiful, and the sun was so warm that most of us sat outside on the hill playing cards and hanging out sipping apple cider. Saturday night after dinner consisted of watching old videos from previous family fun and the farm years and we played mafia.

On sunday we got up and had breakfast and rode horses and four wheelers some more. After lunch the boys did some skeet shooting while the girls supervised. Sarah and i headed back to harrisonburg around 2 and got home around 5. it was a very fun weekend and i am so glad i got to go!

so far this week has been pretty good, it has almost been a week off for young life. We didn't have to plan club this week because it is all area (all five of the area high schools have club together once a semester) and they didn't have school monday or tuesday. so it is kind of nice to have a little break.

next week will be a regular week, then next weekend is fall weekend at rockbridge, then thanksgiving, then two weeks of class, then finals, then i am done with college!

wooohooo

Weekend

Hey everyone! Well this week was ok, but i am glad that it is over! I am headed to Wythville with Sarah this weekend for her family's annual "Fall Family Fun at the Farm" :-D. I am excited to be away and relax and hang out with family (even if it's not mine haha).

This week i had a midterm in my senior seminar (the class on first ladies) over two days. It wasn't too too bad, but it was still intimidating. We had club on wednesday night and had a decent turnout considering that it was halloween.

This is just a short update, i'll write more when i get home from family fun at the farm!

Home

I am (was) at home in Lynchburg for the night to hang out with the family and have my birthday dinner. I figured i would write on here real quick since my mom told me she almost said i couldn't come home unless it said something other than fall break at the top of my blog :-D. I guess i knew what i was getting myself into by starting one! haha

The week went by fairly quickly, just a lot of rain and pretty cold.

Tuesday night was the Young Life banquet, an annual fundraising event. Parents of kids involved in young life, people from the community, and a bunch of others are invited and it's a great dinner and lots of fun. Mamma and daddy were able to come to it which was really fun.

Club on wednesday night was great, about 60 high schoolers there. We played "Eat that food" in which everyone stands in a big circle, and when the music begins they pass around a brown paper bag with an unknown food inside. When the music stops whoever has the bag in their hands must come to the middle of the circle, take out what is in the bag, and take a bite of whatever it is (an onion, a pepper, potted meat, baby food, chocolate bar, etc). The person then returns to the circle with the food in the bag, and then another bag is added to the circle. We played until there were six bags going around i think. I led a game in which two guys laid on the floor, and two girls stood on a table above them, and whoever could make the prettiest ice cream sundae in the guy's mouth won. Lots of fun :-D

On friday night some of our friends had a halloween party at their house. We dressed up like snow white and the seven dwarves :-D. We had lots of fun. Saturday night was great having all the family over for dinner, Amy and Michelle were there too. Then Greg took us out on the town in Lynchburg, exciting huh? WE had a really good time though, we went to Mudpuppy's and then to B Dubs (Buffalo WIld Wings).

Now it's the start of a new week!

Fall Break!

This weekend was JMU's "fall break" which consisted of no friday classes.... half of us don't have friday classes ever... oh well. We took the opportunity to take a house trip down to the outer banks to stay at Michelle's cousin's house. It was a great weekend of relaxation and time together. We took two cars down on thursday, i was in the second which got down there around 11 thursday night. we pretty much went straight to bed, most of us had been up really late the night before and had long days on thursday. friday we took our time getting up and moving, making breakfast and then watching part of a movie. we went to the outlet mall (a tradition when visiting the outer banks) for a while on friday afternoon before going back to the house to enjoy the beautiful sunset and make some dinner. we played cards and enjoyed each other's company. saturday was much of the same, with a trip to the beach in the afternoon. the house we were staying at is on the sound side, collington harbor to be exact. the weather was absolutely beautiful, there was actually a wedding down the beach! on saturday night we went out to dinner at this great place called the black pelican. all of the food was delicious and going out is always fun. on sunday morning some people got up to enjoy the sunset (i was NOT one of those people, big surprise right? :-D). we packed/cleaned up slowly and the first car headed out around 2ish. We all stopped in york county at amy's house for dinner which was so fun. i had not seen her family/been to her house in a while and it's always great being around them. the weekend was JUST what i needed, and i think it was good for everyone to be out of harrisonburg and have nothing to do for a few days. the sleep was definitely very nice.

this week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow night is the Young Life banquet and my parents are coming up for that which i'm really excited about. Then on wedensday is Club, then i'm heading home on saturday for the night, which i am looking forward to!

...30 minutes later...
my team just came by (midnight) to celebrate my birthday with root beer floats and streamers :-D. they're pretty great. i now have a multi color happy birthday banner in my room and purple streamers wrapped around me. couldn't get much better, right?

well i'm off to bed after an eventful night!

just quick

hey everyone, i WILL post soon. we just got back from our fall break trip to the outer banks (SO fun). i will write probably tomorrow! goodnight.

awesome

hello all! we had club last night and it was SO fun! we really felt like the Lord showed up and blessed the whole night. there were about 60 high schoolers there, five of which were black (pretty accurately representing the diversity at spotswood), how awesome is that?! The games we played were really fun. we started off with a tape war; everyone is split into two teams, one with masking tape on their back, and the other with duct tape. whichever team removes the most tape from the other teams' backs' wins -- VERY high energy! then two girls got to lather up a couple guys faces with shaving cream and throw cheese puffs at them. then we had a piece of plexi glass with oreos stuck on either side and a boy had to eat the oreos off of one side while a girl had to eat them off of the other side (not using their hands). Each week some of us do a funny skit, but this week we had three of the senior boys do one. THey did a poetry reading that was really funny, and it was really exciting to have them particitpating in an up front way. i gave the talk, and i think it went pretty well. i talked about the temtaption of Jesus in Luke 4 and how we think of Jesus as this goody two shoes a lot of the time who never dealt with anything and can't have any idea what we're going through. but, this passage shows us that he DOES know what it feels like to be human and be tempted to do things we know we shouldn't. This shows us that God is not/cannot be dissappointed with us when we are tempted, but rather it is our reactions that are important. I could go on and on about how fun it was! It was a great night.

I am very glad it is the weekend and very ready to catch up on some sleep. I'm hanging around harrisonburg again this weekend, probably going to a tractor pull at the fairgrounds on saturday :-D. Next weekend is our fall break, which shouldn't really count as a break at all because all we have is friday off... but most of us don't have class on friday anyway. oh well. But, we're going down to the outer banks thursday night for the weekend, so that will be really fun.

Oh, and here's a picture of sarah and me trying to look tough in our BDUs:

I wish my room wasn't so hot...

October 8th 2007 : 90 degrees
October 9th 2007 : 91 degrees
... i am NOT ok with this...

It is supposed to cool off wednesday and then more on thursday, so i'm just waiting for the end of the week!

In other news, if any of you who read this have not heard the new chris rice album, you should listen to it : www.chrisrice.com/music.php (you can listen to previews of the songs). The title track, "what a heart is beating for" reminds me of working at trail west this summer. Seth, the video intern, knew someone and got this song before it was released and it was on the video each week. It played during the footage of the families climbing to the top of the continental divide. what great memories.

It is crazy how far into the semester we already are... this is our 7th week of classes, we only have like 8 more. INSANE. I have yet to come up with a topic for my seminar research paper. if anyone has been thinking about a problem associated with the office of first lady, please, let me know :-D.

This weekend Kim Mascher and Emily Wade came up and visited for a night. They are both planning on going to London next summer with www.BUNAC.com (which is what i'm planning, too). So we talked about that, and made fun plans and we're so excited!

A class that has been really interesting and informative is my Media and Politics class. It has really made me aware of how influential the media is, and how much power they really do have (when it comes to politics). The huge media conglomerates choose what we see/hear/know about. The media is supposed to serve as a watchdog over our government, and to keep us informed. But, these media outlets are owned by people interested in making money and instead of being responsible to the public, play to advertisers and sponsors. This of course paints the media in a very poor light, and may have some big implications, but as informed individuals we are aware of varied ways to get our information. we do not have to solely rely on television reporters, or newspaper writers, but can look to a variety of information. This is just a brief overview of one of the many topics we talk about in class, all of which i find very intriguing.

Oh, and i went to a class at UREC (the on campus gym) yesterday. we did about a catrillion lunges and i am SORE

I Love Fall!

Hello!
All has been well in Harrisonburg this week, great weather, great weekend, great people! I love fall weather with warm sun, cool air, clear skies -- perfect! We had a great weekend at the Soupbowl. On friday a couple of us went to Blue Hole, a local swimming hole just a bit out of town. The sun was really warm but the water was really cold :-D we jumped off the rock and didn't spend too much extra time in the water. Friday night was our annual "prayer blitz" for leadership where we break up into groups and go to each of the ten school campuses where young life is in harrisonburg and spend time praying for that school, the team that leads there, etc. Then i went with a few others from my team to the Spotswood football game. it was their homecoming and we watched the homecoming court out on the field, most of which are kids we know/come to club. The guy who got crowned king is one of our key guys at club and who is really on board with us this year -- awesome! i also know the girl who got queen, along with the rest of the homecoming court.

This weekend was parents weekend so there was a bunch going on around town on saturday, but we layed pretty low. we had a cookout on saturday night with hotdogs and burgers and then of course a bonfire since that has become our nightly ritual lately :-D On sunday we went to Mel's soccer game after church and then some of us went with the guys across the street to play some ultimate frisbee. So we got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the sun this weekend!

I am leading Campaigners in the morning. Campaigners is a young life gathering for kids who are ready for more of a bible study atmosphere than club. Club is supposed to be the outreach facet and campaigners is where the key kids come to get built up and sent out to reach other highschoolers. I am basically giving an overview of the tools they can use as campaigners/christians. I am using Acts 2:42 which says "And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of break and the prayers." The tools being learning God's teaching/seeking God's word, fellowship, and prayer. Then we have club tomorrow night. Oh, and daddy is coming to harrisonburg for a meeting tomorrow so we get to have lunch! And, Sarah and i get to go paintball tomorrow for our military lab :-D woohoo!

By thy Mercy

Hello everyone, sorry about the slow updates, i know it is disappointing to check a blog only to find nothing new. i will try and be better!

I just got back from our first Spotswood Young Life Club of the year. We had some trouble finding the overhead projector, but got one right at the last second. The game that i was in charge of running didn't go off too well. Two people each have an alka-seltzer taped to their forehead, and are armed with a squirt gun. The object of the game is to dissolve the alka-seltzer on the other person's face first. I practiced/tested taping and squirting and all that earlier in the day with no problems, but at club it didn't work quite the same. Alka-zeltzer was falling off, and tape wasn't holding. But oh well, i suppose the high schoolers probably aren't worried about the games running perfectly, as long as they're having fun. Scott gave the talk which was an introduction to what Young Life is, and what the semester is going to be like, which went really well. I don't' know if anyone counted the actual number of kids there, but i estimate that there were about 40. Overall it was a great start to the year.

This weekend is parents' weekend up here at JMU so Street is having a cookout at our house on saturday which will be fun. I don't have any other huge plans for the weekend, just trying to catch up on sleep and relaxation :-D. It has been hot again this week, and very sticky. I am ready for it to be fall!

Oh, and the title of this entry is the title of a song that i LOVE. It's by these guys who play hymns, they have a website http://www.highstreethymns.com/ and their music is on itunes. it's all really good. here are some of the lyrics from "By thy Mercy":

From the depth of nature’s blindness,
From the hardening power of sin,
From all malice and unkindness,
From the pride that lurks within:
By Thy mercy, O deliver us,
good Lord, good Lord.
By Thy mercy, O deliver us,
good Lord, good Lord.

When the world around is smiling,
In the time of wealth and ease,
Earthly joys our hearts beguiling,
In the day of health and peace,
In the solemn hour of dying,
In the awful judgment day,
May our souls, on Thee relying,
Find Thee still our Rock and Stay

A project that i'm working on for my media and politics class is on John McCain. It is going to be a pretty interesting project. We are in groups of 5, each group with a different presidential hopeful. Each person in the group picks an issue that the candidate has in his/her platform and studies how that issue is covered in the media. The group members then come together and compare each issue area and come to some general conclusions about the candidate and the media. The issue in McCain's platform that i am covering is his "Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life", so if you see any good articles or anything let me know!

Alright, enough for now. love to all!

Sandbridge

This weekend all of the Young Life leaders went down to Sandbridge for some awesome time together. It was a great weekend of learning and relaxing. I rode down with my team on friday afternoon getting to the beach around 8:30. We had the privilege of hearing from Chris Kessick, who is involved with Young Life down in Chesapeake, a few times over the weekend. He talked about a few very important things; about Jesus' love for us, and how powerful it is, and about being in God's word.

One thing that i was really convicted by this weekend was the thought of loving God. I know that he loves me, and the Jesus loves me, but do i actually LOVE God? I serve him, i worship him, i follow him, i adore him, but do i actually LOVE him like i would love a husband? I hear how people talk about their boyfriend or girlfriend and have realized that that is how i should talk about/think about Jesus. One of the books i have started reading recently is titled "live in love with Jesus" and i think it will be really good.

Another book i have been reading is called "the irresistible revolution", and it is really challenging. it is written by this guy, shane claiborne, whose approach to the gospel is pretty radical. he calls himself an 'ordinary radical'. he believes that just as Jesus was very serious when he said love your neighbor as yourself, he was also serious when he said sell all you have and follow me. he has followed Jesus into some of the poorest places in the world. he lives in the worst neighborhood in Philadelphia with others in a community they call the 'simple way'. it is all really provoking and challenging to think about. most of the stuff he talks about i think is true and real, but as with any book or writer there are some things i disagree with. overall i am very convicted by the book and what it is saying.

alright well that's it for now, of course there is much more i could write about, but i will do that later!

California!

Well, as you all can imagine, I had a wonderful time in California visiting the Varelas; what a precious family my sister has! I got there on Thursday night at about 8:45 local time to Long Beach airport, which is right near Jon's work so he was able to pick me up. We had a nice drive to their house talking about Young Life and stuff like that. Oh, and let me say that their new house is so great! Very homey and cosy.

Friday was a fun day; after breakfast and morning routine things we went down to San Clemente to the Rainbow Outlet store where Katie got me my birthday present :-D. Then we went by Capo (our old high school) and i went in and said hello to an english teacher i had for two years, and who also had Katie and Greg as students (she absolutely adored Greg and i'm pretty sure she only still keeps in touch with me to keep up with Greg). Then we went to In'n Out for lunch, yummmmm. Then for the afternoon we hung out at the house while the little ones took naps and such. Saturday we went to Ricci's son's birthday party at the park. It was fun to see Ricci because she was actually one of my core group leaders in high school, and one of Katie's good friends and i hadn't seen her since we moved away. I went with Katie and JOn to church on sunday and heard a great message on Mark chapter 1.

We did some fun things while i was there, but more than anything it was teh biggest blessing to just be there and be a part of their lives for a few days. It is really hard to leave; i really wish we lived closer to eachother.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Oh, and by the way... my 8 o'clock class this morning was NOT fun

Whew!

I am done with classes for the first week of the semester (actually i have one more this afternoon, so i'm almost done). Things seem like they will be pretty good, all the classes seem fairly interesting. i am NOT excited about my GSCI (gened science -- physics, chem, bio) though, i am already having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I am in a music history class from the late romantic to 20th century which i think i'm going to like a lot. My senior seminar is going to be a lot of work, but hopefully i won't get too overwhelmed.

Team Spotswood had a meeting on monday night to catch up and hang out for a little while. we talked abuot this semester and what we're excited about, and things like that. Leslie mentioned that she saw Scott Dovel (who was the young man in the car accident while we were at camp and is now a freshman at JMU) at one of the dining halls on campus the other day and got to speak with him. He is in a wheel chair and bandages, but was lively and energetic and encouraging to talk to. What an answer to prayer! I know he still has a lot of grief to go through, so let's continue to have him in our prayers. As far as SHS Young Life goes we are planning on having a Kick Out Cook Off (also known as a Kick Off Cook Out) next Wednesday to start off the semester. We are also planning on having Campaigners this year. Campaigners is more along the lines of a Bible Study for highschoolers who want to go deeper than just a 7-10 minute club talk. We are all really excited for this year at Spotswood, the Lord has been doing some incredible things in the lives of highschoolers there, and we are all prepared to continue the fight at Spotswood. We are also preparing ourselves for the imminent possibility that Satan is going to attack. Where God is moving Satan attacks. We know the Devil is scared and threatened by what is happening at Spotswood, so just pray for us (there are 8 of us on my team) and for the kids at the school.

I am looking forward to a weekend up here in harrisonburg, nothing big planned, but plenty going on. I am also planning on going home on sunday evening for a family dinner in honor of my cousins Meg and Bryan Smith which will be fun.

I will leave you with something i actually LEARNED today :-D
As you know the Celsius temperature scale is based on water: 0 degrees is ice and 100 degrees is boiling. Did you know that 0 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale was based on the temperature on an average day in Iceland (where Fahrenheit was from), and 100 was the human body (i guess he was fairly accurate)?

JMU!

Well, as it turns out, I did NOT have to work this weekend (yay!), so i drove up to harrisonburg yesterday afternoon (after cherishing the air conditioning at my house for a few extra minutes). I was about 20 minutes from school when Amy (one of my housemates) called and said she had broken down in Richmond. I drove the west of the way to the house and unloaded my stuff and then turned back around and made the two hour drive to richmond to pick her up. We loaded all of her stuff into my car and then went to Shortpump for a little shopping and dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (yum). We made it back to harrisonburg aroun 11 last night.

It's really fun being back here with all the girls, including the two new additions to the Soup Bowl, Kat and Jodi. Today we went to church and then have been helping move stuff into rooms and get things organized and clean before the semester starts. I am excited for the year to start and everything to get rolling!

Alright well i'm off to do some more helping!

Hello World

Well I am making my entrance into the wonderful world of blogging, following the footsteps of my big sister. I'll be making my way back to Harrisonburg soon to start my final semester of college (crazy, huh?). As it turns out I have to work this weekend up at the farm, so i'll move all my stuff into the Soupbowl on Thursday and then come home for the weekend.

This summer has been very long and pretty dull. THe beginning was wonderful and so fun out in Colorado at Trail West and i spend a lot of time thinking about those times. But, after returning to Lynchburg i was pretty bored and ready to quit work after about two weeks.

I went as a leader to Sharptop Cove with the high schoolers from Harrisonburg. It was a very hard but amazing week. We had around 40 kids from Spotswood on the trip and five of my teammates were there. During the week there was a car accident back in Harrisonburg involving two kids from Spotswood. Scott Dovel, his parents, and his girlfriend Brielle Nelson were in the car on the way to the beach for vacation when they were in an accident with a dumptruck. Scott's parents were both killed instantly, Brielle was on life support in the ICU, and Scott was in surgery when we first got the news from one of our campers parents. It was pretty hard having to break the news to these highschoolers who were supossed to be there at camp for the best week of their lives. They all handled it very well and were able to agree that Scott and Brielle would want them to have a good time and be able to go on with the rest of their week. Brielle was taken off of life support the next day and passed away shortly after. She was a cheerleader with a few of the campers with us, and very close friends with most of the girls. Scott is on the lacrosse team with most of the boys on the trip with us, and Scott Sunderlin (my teammate) is one of the coaches on the team. So, to say the least, all of the people at camp were very affected by this tragedy. It was really hard to be in a leadership position in a situation where i wanted to ask the same questions that the kids were. It is really hard to understand "why", and to have faith when something that seems so pointless and so devastating happens. But the Lord prevails and He knows and He is. 40 highschoolers from Spotswood (along with over 100 others from the Harrisonburg area) heard the gospel and were surrounded with love and care and prayer.

Since then i have simply been at home in Lynchburg working at the barn and hanging out with whoever is in town.

One thing that i am VERY excited about is my trip to California to visit Katie, Jon, Nate, and Lucy. I bought my plane tickets a few days ago and i'm heading west on the 6th. I'll get to spend all of friday, saturday, and sunday there. I havn't been out there in a while so it will be fun.

Well i suppose this is long enough for an introductory post.

Lucy