honey bunches of oats

In the past three weeks, God gave me the opportunity to try lots of new things. I loved it. I've come to appreciate some different things. Also, I've been away doing something almost every minute, hence the diminished contact, face-to-face, technologically or otherwise.

I miss you lovely women! Shall we meet up, say, this weekend? :o) I hope you all will be there. Especially, I hope Bri will be there, seeing as it is her house. Otherwise, it could be awkward. I especially hope Joy will be there, seeing as it's been about ten thousand years (hyperbole) since our last meeting. I especially hope Amanda is there because I miss her in general. I especially love you all.

This is what the past three weeks looked like for me:

July 24-31, 2010: Mars Hill, North Carolina
Mars Hill, North Carolina (near Asheville) for our annual (year 15!) all-ages-welcome church mission trip.
-Most of the week I worked on shingling a roof, but other tasks included chipping lead paint in a hazmat suit, clearing out a garage (think expired moonshine, bugs, dirt and plastic ferns),helping with the kiddos, and cleaning an oil tank.
-In my mission to be the least coordinated person alive, I fell off of a short stone wall, or a large stone curb. It was about shoulder-high. I am still healing physically. Luckily not too many people saw. It was a lovely week.
-Spent the latter half of Thursday night (adults night out) with my former youth leader, and three other middle-aged men in a bar in downtown Asheville drinking beer and eating chips and salsa. It was one of the more hilarious parts of my week. I ordered a 12oz house wheat, somehow received a 20oz house wheat, and REALLY SOMEHOW walked safely back to the car. It was wobbly there for a minute standing up, folks, I'm not gona lie.
-I had a wonderful time with a bunch of high schoolers while shingling. They were hilarious and awesome to get to work with for 4 days. Also, shingling is awesome, but less awesome when the shingle tar starts to bubble from the heat. We worked on a Habitat for Humanity house for the shingling-it is a super great organization.

On the 31st (a Saturday), I returned home from the trip at about 6pm, only to leave for Nick's at 8pm, because we were leaving Nick's the next morning for the Outer Banks.
So...

July 31/August 1-August 8, 2010: Corolla, North Carolina
That's right, folks, the day after driving 10 hours back from North Carolina to PA, I drove 8 hours back TO North Carolina, FROM PA. But this is no complaint-I had some amazing trips!
-Spent an awesome week in OBX getting to know Nick's family even better, and just hanging out in general. Lots of beach, pool, hot tub, reading, wave-riding, eating,tennis-"playing" (I believe you've all seen my hand-eye coordination in work), cooking, game-playing, and ... NEW DEVELOPMENT:
-RUNNING! Yes, friends, I run now. I ran every day, except Wednesday, usually for about a half hour, and on Friday, I ran for half an hour in the morning, and then an hour (4 miles... I realize this is slow... but I don't run, so I am amazed that I kept going) in the breezey cool afternoon. I also ran most of the mornings the following week, and I've run every day, except one since I've been home. Are you all proud? I am, because I don't run. But now I do. And I'm the slowest road-squeaking, crank-up-the-music-so-I-can't-hear-my-heavy-breathing, please-move-over-for-the-snail-family-who-is-passing-you runner that you ever did see. But, I do run. I really love OBX. I liked it last time, when I was there about three years ago with Nick's family, but now I love it. There isn't much quite like sitting by the breezy water in a low beach chair with a good book, I've decided. The day we left, it rained. I think that place was sad to see us go. Either that, or there was a low pressure system or something.

August 2-6, 2010: Lake Anna, Virginia
The day after we got back from the Outer Banks, I left with middle schoolers from my church, my good friend, Cara, who is the Children's Director, and two guys (youth leader, and parent volunteer) for the Middle School Youth trip. This is the same sort of trip I took with the high schoolers in July, except, you guessed it, more awkwardness and shorter people. Lots to talk about with the leadership in that, but that is for another time where the internet isn't involved.
-I think God is kind of showing me the awesome thing that is youth ministry and children's ministry. I think I might like to be a Director of Children's ministry somewhere, and I hope to volunteer with our youth group this year. I really liked getting to know the kids on the trips.
-Among the activities were hanging out on a lake with a tube and some pontoon boats, Monticello (because the paintballing we did with the high schoolers was awesome, but way too intense of a place-run by former service men and women-), King's Dominion for a day, helping the girls learn to prank the boys (think frozen nerf darts), and campfires.

I got home this past Saturday. Nick came over Saturday night-Sunday, and I went back to work today (Monday). Next week is Vacation Bible School and work for me.

I didn't mean for that to be so long, because I want to do a "Favorite Things" post, just for fun. I KNOW! I will make a NEW post just for that!

Also, could you all please be praying for my dad, because he has walking pneumonia and is feeling pretty awful. I just want him to feel all better! He's starting to get a little better, I think, but his Dr. told him he has to be out of work for a few weeks.

Love you all and can't wait to SEE you!!!

LOVE,
Hillshire farms
"BIG FEET!"
(Get it, like hillshire farms, go meat!?)