11:18 :)

My cousin had a beautiful healthy baby boy - Tripp - last night at 11:18pm!! I'm headed to TC right after work to see him and cannot wait!

Things are going really well lately! For work...I put on a community photo contest as part of the Frankfort Water Festival and it got a lot of publicity and participation, which was sweet! This last weekend we helped before a Seth and May concert and then went to the concert - aaaawesome! They are so talented and harmonize so incredibly! Not to mention their percussion guy is...wow! It was really cool! For anyone who knows Seth and May, you probably know what I'm talking about, but those two are so great! They're incredibly talented and SO down to earth. If only more musicians could be more like them! 

Also for work, I got to start a weight lifting class with female athletes and it's been SO nice to train people again! The track coach emailed me last week asking me to be his assistant coach (which sadly can't possibly work since I work for an after school program haha). I will be as involved as possible though - and it was cool that some girls' had asked him to ask me! 

We've been talking about summer programming for work and have decided (broadly) on running a summer camp for JR high kids that will run for 3 weeks, then take an adventure camping trip in the UP, week off, 3 more weeks, then maybe one more camping trip...whiiiiich I will be the chaperone for :/ Eee! Haha oh I can't wait for summer! So anyway, work has been good...I love my students and they make it more and more worth it all the time!

I fiiiinally sang in public a few nights ago!! My church asked me to sing and play for a womens' night fundraiser a while back and I hesitantly agreed (kind of)! I basically said that I would do it (in hopes that I could convince myself before the day of), but also told the woman in charge not to tell anyone, so that I had the option of backing out even up until the last minute! Somehow between what feels like years of trying to just get over it, lots of prayers, and the most encouraging friends/family around...I did it! I doubt that I'm totally cured...but am stoked that I did it, I didn't forget anything, and it went well overall! :)

Other than that...SPRING BREAK STARTS FRIDAY!!!! I'm going home Thursday night and fly to Cali to see Brett Friday!! Bonus - David and Jill are picking Kendall up in the morning and me up in the evening and we're going to dinner before heading to Brett's! Thennn Kendall and I will be taking a train back to Tuscon Sunday and I'll be spending the week with her and flying home Friday overnight! Woweeee I'm so stoked to see two of my besties!! Praying for more springy weather and none of that white stuff when I return :) SPRING! SUMMER! SUNSHINE! BEEEEEEEACH! Sweet times are just around the corner!!

Here are some recent quotes that made my day...

Just after our drum instructor did a killer solo...one student said, "Do you just keep an imaginary box of awesome next to you and just pull stuff out?"

One of the kids I babysit jumped in my arms at church last week and said, "I just caaan't stoooop loving you!"

Not a quote - but still so great...The little boy I babysit, 3yrs old, basically hates me in public and is fine with me when I babysitting...I think it's because I represent his parents leaving, so it's pretty much law that he has to hate me. At a concert the other night, I was sitting next to him as he fell asleep in his mom's arm. He looked so precious and peaceful with a little smirk on his face and eyes shut. Then he opened his eyes just long enough to give me this awful glare/angry face that he often gives me, then shut his eyes and smirked and looked completely satisfied and peaceful again. This happened 3 times! hahaa 

One student to one of our drum class kids, "Do you ever think about just bringing a lady friend in here and seranading her with the drums? Like 'here I wrote this for you!'"

One of my kids always listens to screamo, so one day another student and I were mocking it and he said, "Hey can we harmonize screams?" Naturally we tried. It was weird. I'd do it again though.

While playing a beautiful little number on the guitar, this student told this story in a calm, nostalgic tone... "So there I was, sitting on a rock in God's beautiful creation and pondering over my purpose in this world. Then I said, "God what do you have planned for me in this life? What should I do with my time and talents?" Then God looked to me and said "AAHH!" (The "AAHH" was this awful screeching noise that totally ruined what seemed like a beautiful memory! Fake! hahaaa what a jokester!)

Two kids were playing bumper pool and making bets. One kid kept losing and his overall punishment added up to having to wear a girls' tanktop, short jorts, doing the stankyleg, while the other kid took pics that would of course go public via the good old FB. The winner felt bad and eventually just said that the other kid could just carry his books for him. The next day he forgot so the kid went into the other kids class to get him to come carry his book hahaa..Now I know this might sound like bullying, but you have to know the relationship and personalities of the guys I guess!

"WHAT who ate all my Gushers? ...Oh yeah it was me." The turn around between being super mad then remembering he had ate his own Gushers...priceless! 

A student said he was going to enter the water photo contest by submitting a pic of him drinking from a drinking fountain. That alone was great (and did, by the way, get a lot of votes!) but then this other kid said,  "Just you drinking from a fountain? I'd just take a picture of this blue ball...water's blue aint it?"

A kid came in with this joke..."What's 5+6?" Everyone said 11.."nope 9...see" ...he proceeded to write the word NINE one line at a time so that it took 11 marks to make it. The rest of us are like ok we get it, but one student goes, "No but 5+6 is 11, I know it is!" He was so confused!

love&gushers

PS For all of those worried about my sanity, the purple room is gone! Yay for YELLOW :)

Miracles, Glue, and Love

I haven't written on this thing in ages it seems, so I guess here's why...

Probably most people reading this know that one of my closest high school friends died Jan 31st. Tom initially went into a coma that I thought he would come out of. In fact, I'd say I was sure he would come out of it. Sitting in the hospital, knowing that there were literally people from that room to the other side of the earth and back praying for this very guy, made me as sure as I could be that a miracle, which was Tom's only hope, was going to happen. Tom did not get the miracle we had begged for... He didn't get what we had hoped and prayed for and "knew" was best...and this began the hardest week I've lived. I don't say any of this as if I had it the worst of those affected by Tom's death...or the worst affected from any other death that a loved-one has ever suffered in history...nonetheless, in my little 24 years of life, this was the hardest loss that I've ever known.
On the other side of all of this, however, God took the one miracle that we had prayed for and multiplied it by four (and counting). Tom's organs saved the lives of four people...FOUR people are living because of him. It just blows my mind. This incredible, caring, honest, funny, musical, hard-working, loving, faithful person gave even beyond his last breath. Amazing. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to know such love. At this point, the beauty in what he did by donating his organs, is not quite enough to justify it for me or for a lot of us that love him. That's me being a selfish human who wants what I want when I want it though...and not fully appreciating that God is bigger than what I pray for. He took a request for one miracle and quadrupled it. Eventually this will be enough. The positive will outweigh the negative. The beauty will trump the pain. And I will have learned to more fully appreciate the gift of life and of death. For now, however, I still selfishly look at this and say - why take such an incredible person away in order to save the others? Couldn't there be someone else? Someone who was old or sick or already dying? Not someone who just had a horrible accident, but was otherwise strong and healthy and full of life for years to come...but again, that's me being human...but today that's all I am.

This has gotta be one of our first pictures!

I am again beyond thankful that I even had the opportunity to glimpse such a life, much less be a part of it. Tom has been the glue in our group of friends for years. He always got all of us together at any and every chance. The week between his death and funeral, our friends got together every single day and night until we were exhausted...to be near each other, to comfort each other, to share memories, to just not go it alone. Tom wouldn't have had it any other way. Actually, when we were all in the hospital I said, "Ok Tom, we're all here. You can wake up now!" (figuring/hoping that this was the ultimate stunt in getting us all together!)
It was scary for me to think that now we had to hold our group of friends together...I think it was scary for all of us. I feel that through Tom's death, I have become more aware of just how precious every moment is with my friends and family. I hope to be more careful of spending my time in ways that I will never regret down the road. I don't ever want to look back and wish that I had made a phone call or a visit...because I know that Tom wouldn't have missed these chances, and I could only hope to live and love like him.

I hope that anyone reading this takes this advice...To any reasonable end (or even a little unreasonable sometimes!) - Do not let money stop you from spending time together. Do not let busyness stop you. Do not let a 2 minute walk across campus stop you (soon this could be a 2 hour or even 2 day drive when you graduate). Do not let homework or work or even sleep stop you. I'm not saying to drop everything and just lounge around and hang out - but I am saying prioritize your life in such a way that there is room for every possible moment with the ones you love. Drive the extra mile...or 50. Pay the extra gas money and just go. Lose a little sleep. Spend a few cents on a stamp and mail a letter. "Say what you need to say." Make someone's day - not because it's a holiday or because you owe them, but because their happiness drives you to be more for them. Listen. Really listen. Make people worth your time and be sure that they know they are worth it. Just love. And when you do, do it as if you are making sure that this person will know beyond a doubt when you hang up or walk away or say goodnight...that you LOVE them with every ounce of your being.