Monumental occasion

I got to go to a red sox game for the first time today. They won!! Yay! They were playing here in Philly (speaking of which the name Philadelphia Phillies shows no creativity whatsoever), so I went with Colleen and Matt and the kids and also with Faith and Damian, which brings me to the other exciting part of the day - I got to see my newest niece today. She is so adorable. I posted pictures from the day on my facebook.

Have a great night!

Sore!!

Before this week, I considered myself to be in pretty decent shape. Matt and I go to the gym several times a week and I can do some kind of cardio workout for about a half hour and I don't feel like I'm going to die. I also do a lot of weights when I go to the gym. In addition to that, we play volleyball every Monday for 2-2 1/2 hours and this is not your typical "church picnic volleyball" where anything goes and it's more just fun than it is a workout. No, this is pretty competitive volleyball and I very rarely leave without feeling like a workout. Also, I've recently started on a prison ministry volleyball team. All that to say, I felt like I was in pretty good shape......until Monday. I started soccer practice on Monday. Now, I've never liked the coaches that scream at you to run and then don't do anything, so if I don't have something else to be doing right then, I will run laps or suicides with them or do lunges with them. I think it was the lunges that killed me. I am convinced that even if you are in incredible shape, lunges will still hurt (Now, I can't prove this because I've never been in what I consider to be "incredible shape"). By Monday night, my legs were so sore and by Tuesday they were even worse. Going up and down the three flights of stairs at my apartment was absolutely awful. I couldn't believe how sore I was when I thought that I had been in pretty decent shape!! Now, I did get some level of satisfaction out of the girls whining and moaning on Tuesday about how sore they were also. Apparently, they weren't in as good of shape as they thought they were in either.

Maybe by the end of the season in May, I'll be in that elusive "incredible shape" and then maybe, just maybe, the lunges won't hurt, but I won't hold my breath waiting for the moment.

Winter retreat

This weekend we had our winter retreat for the youth group, and I was pretty sore and exhausted when we got back. We brought 43 kids to Camp Calvary and stayed from Thursday night until Saturday afternoon. From the moment we arrived at the camp until we pulled into the parking lot on Saturday afternoon, we were constantly on the go. Some of the activities included rock climbing, tubing, spoketackle, tackle football, and manhunt (hide-and-seek on steroids). We didn't get to bed before 2 am either night. The girl leaders got lucky, though. The guys were up till all hours of the night pranking each other with shaving cream, silly string, stinkbombs, and airsoft guns. The girls were content to talk for a while and then go to sleep. I'm so thankful that Matt and I get to work with the teens. We love it!! It's great fun to be able to be a bit kiddish for a while every now and then. After all, once you graduate from college, you don't ever get to play spoketackle, play hide-and-go seek, or leg wrestle at any activities, because there's really only a select few who still like to do those things. So those select few get elected to be youth leaders. It works out well.

Besides getting to play games a lot, I love being a youth leader for so many other reasons. It's great to be able to see my students and get to know them outside of class and it's such a blast getting to watch them change into more mature people and more mature Christians. This weekend, we were able to see a bunch of kids make decisions to change things in their lives that definitely need to be changed. One specific testimony: Stephanie came to Bensalem as a new student this fall and from the very beginning she didn't fit in. Most of the kids were betting that she would get herself kicked out before Christmas break. Well, she didn't for which I am very thankful. As near as anybody could tell, she wasn't saved and had no interest in being saved. I began praying very specifically for Stephanie. I prayed for chances to talk to her and prayed that some of the other kids would take her under their wing rather than shutting her out because she wasn't just like them. Gradually, in the last month or so everybody has been seeing a change in Stephanie for the better. She was behaving better in class, getting along with people better, and actually putting forth an effort in her classes. She began randomly asking me to pray for her. She didn't give a reason, but I didn't need one. I was ecstatic that she was interested in making changes. She came to the winter retreat and I was praying for her specifically to make some changes. The first night she came forward and I got to talk to her. I was ecstatic!!!! She told me that she knew she had gotten saved when she was 8, but she also knew she wasn't acting like a Christian and she wanted to change. She and I prayed together and I was able to give her some verses and encourage her. On Friday night, she stood in front of everybody and asked their forgiveness for being such a jerk since they've known her and begged her classmates to help her change. This morning was the first day back at school since the retreat and there always tends to be a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind that the camp decisions are just camp decisions and there won't be any really change. However, I could already see a difference in Stephanie this morning. One of the other girls was giving her a hard time and trying to get her going and she said, "Hey, I'm not like that anymore. I've gotten that out of my life and I'm done with it, so don't try to get me going. You won't get any profanity out of me." This is what it's all about ladies and gentlemen!! I'm so excited to see God answer my prayers about Stephanie. It's such a good reminder that God has the power to change anybody no matter how hopeless I think it is.

Well, after a 6 day break, I have to get back in the swing of things, so so long for now.

Have a great day!

Spirit week

This week we've had spirit week at school. It's been hilarious to see the outfits that the kids can come up with. It's also been a great chance for the kids to get rid of some excess energy and restlessness. The only problem with that is that they think because they're more relaxed that I just shouldn't teach them. Oh well, Mr. Goyak always said during spirit week at college that it was somewhat more difficult to teach a class of strangely dressed people. Now I understand. I've had a blast participating, too. For example, today is green and gold day (school colors), so I have green hair and gold eyebrows and eyelashes. Not to mention that I am always excited about a chance to wear green eyeshadow. Another positive note about spirit week: I've gotten to wear denim skirts and socks and sneakers all week. Well, I'm wearing my hodag sandals today, so that's just as good.

Spirit week allows the kids to show some creativity and unfortunately, I've been a little bit disturbed at the complete lack of discretion that some students have showed in their creativity. For example,  we had a pair day. Everybody had to pair up with somebody and dress up together. We had some really great ones like Raggity Ann and Andy, Salt and Pepper, Pirates, Coke and Pepsi, etc. However, we also had 2 guys who thought it best to dress up as the 2 cowboys from Brokeback Mountain. And a guy and girl who thought they should be Michael Jackson. What's most disturbing is that the cowboys didn't understand why they didn't get voted the best. They say that they were just trying to be funny, and I understand that some people find it funny to mock the gay lifestyle; but I have never been amused by it. There are enough things in this life that we can laugh about and have fun that there's no need to try to make funny what God clearly says is wrong.

Anyways, it's been a fun week. Pics are going to be on my facebook.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

24

Matt and I are officially hooked.

I never watched 24 because while you're in school it's hard to get into a show. I've always thought it sounded interesting, but didn't make much effort to find out a lot about it. So, Matt and I just got done getting all caught up on "The Office" so we were at a loss as to what we should watch now. Well, it seemed that everybody at our church and school was into "24" so if we were going to fit in, we had to get into it as well. I borrowed Season One from a student on Thursday and watched three episodes that night and 4 on Friday night. And as soon as Matt gets home from work tonight we have plans to watch several more. This is definitely our new favorite show!