Whew, Busy Weekend!

Nathan and I spent a weekend at Wildhorse Canyon in Central Oregon. It's a Young Life camp where I have spent a lot of time in the past and I hadn't been there in over 2 years. Not only that, but Nathan had never been to a Young Life camp. We decided that it would be a good idea for him to at least see the place where I would be spending a week every summer.

Taking kids to camp is basically the culmination of all the work we Young Life leaders do with the kids throughout the year. It's a time when the kids are taken out of their lives that are forcing them to grow up too fast, and are allowed to just BE kids. Each YL camp is like a 5 star resort for high schoolers, complete with being totally served, an olympic sized pool, amazing food, and a lot of great games. It's also a time for kids to be completely immersed in a Christian environment where they can be approached with the idea of God and Christ in a non-threatening, fun environment.

If you've never seen that aspect, it's hard to understand why in the world we put so much time and effort into the rest of the year. After all, if I'm not working, I'm at Club every Monday night of the school year...that's a lot of evenings away from my husband. But it's so worth it, because SOMEONE has to love on these kids. Especially the ones who come from families broken by divorce, abuse, and/or drugs.

So this weekend gave Nathan a chance to see the camp itself and get an idea of Young Life's attitude of service, not to mention a better idea of why we do what we do. I think it kind of confused several of the people there at first...Young Life camp staff has such an amazing attitude of service that even the most menial of tasks are done with joy and the smallest details are given the greatest amount of care. Yeah, the kids probably don't notice that all the salts and peppers on each dining table are arranged the exact same way, but what they do notice is the extreme care and love that goes into every aspect of their stay.

But it isn't perfection for perfection's sake...we strongly believe that if it were Christ serving the campers, setting the table, cleaning the rooms, He would lovingly see to every minute detail. So we strive to show that love through our attention to detail. And that philosophy goes beyond the hospitality of the camp. It reaches to all aspects, all resulting in the kids who arrive at camp being treated like royalty, eating at a family table for perhaps the first time in their lives, and really feeling the love of God. It's an amazing phenomenon to witness, and I always jump at the opportunity to serve at camp, to be a part of that and be reminded why it's so important to have a servant's heart.

Beyond all that, the best part of the entire weekend was getting to work along side Nathan and share a place that is so close to my heart with him. I couldn't stop telling him how much it meant to me to be able to share this weekend with him. We worked side by side all weekend, and that was such a huge blessing...it's not often we get to SERVE together. Plus it was wonderful just to get to see him for more than an hour or two each week. Graveyard shift has been hard this time around. Now I just wish that Nathan could see what an actual Young Life camp, complete with kids, looks like. It makes all the difference in the world.

So we spent the weekend busting our butts for hours on end. By the end of the day on Saturday, we were ready to collapse. Our day started at 6 am, worked non-stop until about 3, had a 2 1/2 hour break, and then worked again from 5:30 until about 8. It made for a very long day, all of it spent on our feet. Both of us worked in the dining hall, which meant cleaning up after and then setting up for over 300 people. It was exhausting work, but it was incredibly satisfying. At least it was for me...I hope Nathan feels the same way. All the ladies that worked with us in the dining hall thought Nathan was just the sweetest guy ever, especially the older ones. It was too cute. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Fun Delivery!

Today there were two HUGE boxes on our front porch when Nathan came home for his afternoon break.

One was my fly fishing pole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO excited! I've been wanting to have a fly pole for years, and last summer was especially hard. Nathan fell in love with fishing, but he does regular fishing, which bores me to tears. If I had a fly pole, I would have immediately joined him, but as it was he had to go by himself. But now, I'm able to go with him! And get back into the art that is fly fishing! The really exciting part is that I'll be able to go fly fish in Yellowstone this summer! The part that I really love about this fly pole is that it breaks down into five 18 inch sections, instead of the normal and longer three sections. Which makes this the perfect pole for taking hiking...and it's so incredibly light!

The other package on our front porch was our second guitar for Guitar Hero III on the Wii! We were so excited to buy guitar hero for our Wii, but when we bought it, we didn't realize that the separate second guitars would not be available for another few months. Part of the major fun of guitar hero is being able to play with a friend at the same time, rather than waiting to take turns...that way you can do cooperative play or battle against each other. So we've been waiting fairly impatiently for the second guitar to arrive...which it finally did!

YAY! TWO exciting toys arriving on the same day! It feels like Christmas or something!

Holy Cats!

So next season, I'm directing a play for the local regional theatre, Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre. The theatre was started by my high school director, Lynne (who is now retired), along with another gal who graduated from Baker high school. And I'm so totally pumped to be directing again! Lynne gave me two plays to choose from, and I ended up choosing the one that I expected to like the least.

But here's the thing...the play is written for as many as 35 characters!!!! HA HA HA HA! Right. Baker doesn't hold that many actors. In fact, it's next to impossible to get any male actors. So tonight, I spent a good chunk of my shift tonight condencing a play written for 35 characters down to something playable by 8 people! 4 men, 4 women. It took over 4 hours, a very cramped back, several revisions, a small forest worth of paper, two pencil erasers, and one Word program to get it done, but get it done I did!

The coolest part about this play is that there are several times when a voice will come over a speaker from backstage, as if over a radio. See, this play (entitled 'Seek') is about a boy who has never met his father, who is a radio DJ. So the boy becomes obsessed with building and listening to radios, gradually increading his bandwidth to be able to hear radio stations all over the world, in order to search for his father. And yet, as he grows older, he realizes that his need to search for his father diminishes, until the day when is father calls and the boy tells him that he is nothing more than a ghost to him. Pretty powerful. Anyway, I'm super excited to direct it, it's going to take a lot of imagination and will stretched me, especially since I haven't directed in almost 3 years.

YAY!

Weekly Weigh In

Well, I lost 3 lbs last week! Which means that I've lost a total of 10.5 pounds in 4 weeks!!!! YAY! And I'm only 2 pounds away from the lowest weight I got to the first time we did weight watchers together. So I'm totally pumped, because I should hopefully bust through that this week! Along with all that, I lost a 1/2 inch all the way around...chest, waist, hips.

Also, I just got done running an 11 minute mile. It was a little painful, but I did it! Running outside is so much harder than running on the treadmill! But I have to get used to it since that's where our 5k will be taking place...you know, outside.

Jonah Werner Concert

When I was up at Malibu, the young life camp in British Columbia, an awesome guy named Jonah Werner, from Colorado, was there all month as the musical guest. His wife, Ruthie, was also there all month and shared her life story each week, which was really powerful. I know my girls were really touched by what she shared, especially because the knew how hard it was for Ruthie to share it. By the time we headed home, every kid that we had taken with us to camp was a HUGE Jonah Werner fan, as were all of us leaders. He just has such a personable style and his songs are...amazing! I recommend checking him out at www.jonahwerner.com where you can listen to several of his songs. My favorite is All We Want, which some of you may have heard on my Myspace page.

So fast forward to this weekend. Eric, our head leader here in Baker, used his awesome contacts (Eric's dad was Jonah's science teacher, ha ha ha) to convince Jonah to come be our guest speaker/entertainer for our Dessert Auction...which didn't take much persuading. Everyone absolutely loved what he had to say, and we had a HUGE turn out last night for his free concert he did.

Even though I was thoroughly exhausted last night before going to the concert (I was falling asleep on the couch), Nathan convinced me to go and I'm glad I did. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the concert itself, but then six of my coleaders (all married couples) and Jonah and Ruthie joined us at Barley's afterwards for a couple of beers. It was so much fun! First, I love spending time with my coleaders, so it was a great chance to hang out with them without having to stress about getting club ready to roll. Second, it was a TON of fun to get to actually know Jonah beyond the stage and get to talk to Ruthie, who I've seen several times but never talked to. She's one of those gorgeous women who you think is going to be kind of stand-off-ish, but then you realize that she dresses in a quirky manner and has a quirky, friendly personality to go with it. We're just bummed that they live all the way in Boulder, Colorado and hopefully they'll come visit again soon!

All in all, it was a wonderful, tiring weekend and now I'm spending all of Sunday relaxing before Nathan and I go to see Horton Hears a Who at 6:00 tonight. Tune in tomorrow for my weigh-in!

After The Negative Post...

...I had to share something positive. This is literally the first picture I've had taken of myself in YEARS that I haven't cringed at. Night before last I was up at 2 am by myself and decided to put on some of the cute clothes that I use to wear all the time in Portland but never wear in Baker. And here's one of the results...I honestly love this picture and I can't wait to see what I look like in another month! Look, you can see definition in my arms!!!!!!!!! Gotta love what losing 10 pounds in one month will do for you!

In other news, yesterday I ran on the treadmill for the first time in about a week, and was able to run/walk 2.5 miles in 40 minutes without feeling like I was killing myself. That's only 0.6 miles less than the 5k I'll be running in June, which is still 3 months and 1 day away! In fact, it was actually really easy, and today I'm going to up my running amount. Wish me luck!

Burned

"Yeah, we're friends for the most part, but if I had my choice between hanging out with you guys and my college friends, I'd choose my college friends every time. And you have to admit, you'd probably do the same."

A guy I went to high school with said this to me about a month ago, while sitting in my house, drinking my husband's homebrewed beer. Wow. I was too taken aback to inform him that, actually, usually I enjoy his company and if I had to choose between our Baker friends and my college friends, I'd do my best to see if both could happen. But whatever. If we're just your stand-in friends, the ones you spend time with when you don't have anyone else better to hang out with, who needs you?

I'm tired of bull shit friends. People that only call when it's convenient for them. Who get annoyed if you are being inconvenient. Who you know you could never call when you're in a tight spot because they'd completely blow you off unless they had nothing better to do. And I don't want to be that kind of friend. Which means that true friends in Baker are in short supply.

I admit it, I'm more than jaded now. It's going to take a long time to develop a friendship beyond the surface because I've put so much trust and effort into people who just give me crap in return. I can count on one hand the number of people I trust completely with my heart and friendship. And unfortunately it's going to take a lot to add to that number.

What makes people so careless with other peoples' feelings? What prompted my high school friend to say that to me? Did he feel like it would make him feel better about himself to make me feel like shit? Yeah, he has a reputation of being a jerk, which he almost seems proud of. So does he feel like he has to uphold that reputation? Cause he's doing a fine job of it. And I call bull on it. There's no need to treat the people around you like crap.

I hate feeling like this. I hate knowing that it's going to take a lot to find a friendship that rivals what I have with Dani, who is clear across the state. A friendship where I can be 100% myself. Doen't people understand that I want you to be yourself, there's next to nothing about you that will shock me or that I can't forgive? I want to be able to meet someone who wants to hang out and get to know me better, without wondering how they're going to screw me over.

I also want to be accepted, dang it! I've worked in my job for over a year now. It seems like everyone else that I work with gets invited to bbq's, parties, get togethers, what have you. But does anyone think to invite me? Evidently this weekend, there's a team party...and the last to find out about it? My partner and I. Now my partner has a reason. The party is happening at her ex boyfriend's house. So we figure that either they didn't want to tell me because then I would tell Stephanie (or because I'm always with Stephanie when I see them...but then, there's always email), or it's because they plain forgot about me or don't want me there. And that's a great feeling. I'm tired of being the one that everyone overlooks or doesn't want around. Am I seriously that NOT fun to have around.

Whatever. I've decided that mean people just suck.

Great News!

Just a quick note to tell you some exciting news! Tonight was my first rehearsal for the musical I'm in, which Lynne is directing. For those of you who don't know, Lynne was my high school theatre director and the one who taught me to love theatre. When I walked into the room we were rehearsing in, Lynne immediately came over to me and asked me if I would like to direct a play for them next season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has two played picked out that I get to choose from, and she'll have the scripts to me by rehearsal next week. So by the end of next week, I will probably know which play I'm directing! Not sure exactly when the play will open, but I'll let you know as soon as I know! I'm so excited that Lynne asked me, I just never felt right about the idea of asking Lynne if I could direct for them. I felt like I needed to prove that I was willing to work hard first and I wasn't sure how long that would take. YAY!

Weekly Weigh In

So when I got home from work this morning, I immediately jumped on the scale for my weekly weigh in. What a disappointment...a measly 0.2 pounds lost. On top of that, I really hadn't lost anything in terms of measurements.

For the rest of the day, I was feeling kinda down, but thankfully Carly came by with Stella and we hung out and talked for about an hour, which made it pretty hard to feel sorry for myself. Friends and cute babies kinda have that effect on me.

After Carly left, I had a turkey pita sandwich (YUM!) and then crawled back into bed to read for an hour or so before needing to jump in the shower, make dinner and go to young life. But before I got in the shower, I got on the scale again, more out of desperation than anything...

I was down another pound!!!

I just have to remember that when I am on graveyard, I need to wait until after waking up to weigh myself, since I eat at night and my body needs a chance to digest. So that makes 1.2 pounds lost last week!

On a less happy note, Nathan has come down with some sort of a bug. He's been fighting it for the past couple of days, but today the bug won. Which means that he is now in bed and I'm avoiding him...I've managed to keep from getting sick all winter, and I plan on keeping it that way!

So now I am sitting down in the basement with the doggies, enjoying a small glass of wine. And to further make my night, I just found Dirty Dancing on cable, free of commercials...and it just started! How a man can be that macho and yet such an amazing dancer is beyond me, but I'm not complaining!

Also Exciting...

The time change at 2 am tomorrow morning means that I will only be working 11 hours this shift!

Huzzah!

So Stinkin' Excited!

As many of you have probably read, my friend Carly and I are running a 5k in Rexburg, ID (where she lives) on June 14th. Well, while we were discussing this the other day, Carly briefly mentioned that while we were down there for the race, we might as well take an extra couple of days and go to Yellowstone, since it's less than 2 hours away. I didn't really think anything more of this afterwards, since I had it stuck in my mind that Nathan and I were planning some sort of a camping trip for our 2 year anniversary.

It's funny what strikes you at 6 am after a 12 hour shift...on my way home this morning from work, I had a revelation. Why not postpone our anniversary trip by a week or so, take a couple of days off after the race, go to Yellowstone (which I've never been to, btw), and make THAT our anniversary trip?! I'm sure many of you believe I've stumbled upon the inanely obvious, but give me some credit...I've been a little busy lately and I do some of my best problem solving after a 12 hour graveyard shift.

When I checked my calandar, I figured out that there's a way that I can get away with only needing two days off of work. Nathan will obviously have to take more, but hey, that's ok, he needs to use up his one week of vacation time a year anyway. As soon as I got home, I mentioned this to Nathan, and he sleepily agreed that it was a great idea...right before going back to sleep. Since then, I've been scouring the Yellowstone website for ideas on where to camp, fish, eat, what sights to see, etc.

So here's the plan. On Friday, June 13th, Nathan and I will drive down to Rexburg (6 hours) to Carly and Shem's place, go to the informational potato bake for the race, and stay the night at Carly's. Saturday will consist of running the race, enjoying all the entertainment they're going to have there afterwards, and then crashing. Then on Sunday, Nathan and I will drive up to Yellowstone (2 hours), get camp set up, and spend the next 3 days exploring. On Thursday morning, we'll pack everything back up and drive the 8 hours back home so that I can be back to work on Friday.

The great part is that the only days I will need to request off from work are Monday and Tuesday (June 16 & 17). Nathan will need Friday and Mon-Thurs off, but that will be his 5 days of payed vacation that he needs to use anyway. The doggies will go in the kennel, and we will spend our days hiking, fishing, taking photos, and enjoying the sights! I'm SOOOO excited, probably because the last time we took a vacation together that included spending more than two nights in one place was our honeymoon.

Anyway, that's the excitement in my life!

Improv..Or Lack There Of

So I know that I'm a theatre person. I love acting. I ADORE directing. Whenever I get a chance to do tech, I have a blast. But there is one facet of theatre which I dread, simply because I suck so horribly at it. That's right, although I can pull a witty retort at the drop of a pin if there's no pressure, I can not for the life of me come up with funny crap to say under the pressure of an improv skit. Which would probably be why I meekly refrained from volunteering to be a part of our high school improv competition team...more like ran the other direction actually. So when I saw this comic, it made me laugh, because this is what I feel like any time I'm asked to do improv.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

So Excited!!!!

As if I don't have enough on my plate between my job, working on our house, being a team leader for relay for life, etc...ha ha ha

My friend, Carly, and I have decided to start training for the Teton Dam Marathon in Rexburg, ID that takes place on June 14th. That's where Carly lives, and I figure that it will probably be easier for me to go where she lives so that she doesn't have to travel with Stella. Plus it will be fun to see where she lives! I can't even tell you how excited I am about this!

Since this will be our first marathon, I think we're just going to do the 5k, which is just over 3 miles long. After we tackle that, who knows, but I'm super excited to start training for my first marathon AND have someone to do it with! It will be extra incentive to keep my running time up, which won't be too hard since I've become thoroughly addicted to running anyway.
Here's the website for the marathon, it's to commemorate when the dam broke and flooded the valley back in the day...hope it doesn't happen again!

http://www.dammarathon.com/

Weight Loss For The Week

Well, once again, it's my weekly weigh-in.

Well, as I thought, the weight didn't fall off this week as much as it did last week, but at least I lost some weight!

2 lbs lost this week, 7.6 lbs total!

I'm excited about starting graveyard shift, because it seems like I am better about what I eat and about getting to the gym. I usually go work out right after I get off work in the morning, then go home, take a shower, and go to bed.

The great thing is that my body still feels like I'm losing weight, so I'm wondering if part of my lower weight loss is because I'm gaining muscle also. I went to Maurice's day before yesterday and tried on some size 12 jeans...I haven't worn size 12 since my sophomore or junior year of college. I was actually able to button the jeans!!! I could have bought some, but they were still kinda tight around the waist and I want to wait until I REALLY fit into them. I've gradually put away the $30 in cash that it will cost to buy some Maurice's jeans, so as soon as I can fit in them, I'll buy some to reward myself!

Whew!

What a busy weekend!

Yesterday we took a trip up to the house to get some 2x4's, and then headed to Ontario to go to Home Depot. We decided that it is time to do something about our DESTROYED backyard and our falling-apart bathtub surround. We're making the very pack concrete pad into a doggie fortress so that we can stick them back there every day and they won't tear up the yard. Also, it will be easier to clean up after them. After we get the 'fortress' built, we're planning on tilling up, leveling, and reseeding the yard. Oh, and we're planning on tearing down the doggie club house, because it's SO incredibly against code. So yesterday we got 3 weather treated 8 ft posts, some concrete, and some flat cinder blocks to go along the back fence behind where the doggie club house is. Nathan managed to get the posts put up and cemented before it started to snow last night.

Also, we've decided to leave the blue tub in the bathroom but we're going to pull out the nasty stuff that is surrounding the tub and then we're going to put in 13"x13" tile. It's going to be a big project, but it's going to look SOOOO good when it's done...if you ignore the vintage 70's blue bathtub. The awesome thing...all of the supplies for these to projects added up to over $300, but with all the Home Depot gift cards we got, it ended up costing us just over $100!

Once the tile and the backyard are done, we're going to focus our energy on finishing the bathroom...first we're going to replace the vanity with something more modern, then we'll tear out all the molding, sand it down, paint everything blue and brown with white trim, then replace the flooring. If we're feeling ambitions, we'll put tile floor in the bathroom...if not, we'll do something else. Yay for being home owners!

This morning we got up and went back to the Harvest Church, where we went two weekends ago. Once again, there was a guest speaker instead of the regular pastor, but we really like the feel of the church itself. It's so relaxed and friendly...granted, there is some flag waving, but the flags are relegated to the back of the church. It makes you wonder if the pastor told the flag wavers, "Ok...well..if you feel that is how you are being called to worship, there are some flags in storage and you can stand in the back and wave away." But everyone is incredibly welcoming, and as odd as the flag waving is, the entire place makes you feel like you're free to worship however you want. It's relaxed enough that there are parents who will pick up their kids and dance with them to the music. It's really fun.

The other great part is that there are a ton of younger couples that go to this church. We were starting to wonder if they even existed! There's one couple we met today named Joselyn and Ben, they have three kids and Ben teaches at the Christian school that runs out of the church. We're hoping to get together with them for lunch in the next couple of weeks. We're super excited about this church. It fits us better than the Nazarene Church did...there are more young people and it feels so much more relaxed. We always felt like the moment we walked in there, we had to be serious and were waiting for someone to immediately ask us where the heck we had been. It's so serious!!! There's no freely expressing your joy about your faith. I dunno, we're just super excited to have finally found a church that we think feel fits us.

So after going church and running some errands, Nathan and I commenced relaxing. It feels good to just sit...here pretty soon I'm going to take a nap so that I can stay up late tonight and sleep most of the day tomorrow in order to get ready for my first night shift tomorrow night.