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.

 

Finding Purpose

For some of you, this is the exact message I sent to you on FB earlier this week, so feel free to skip this blog :) 

So there's this 36yr old woman, Lisa, from the church I've been going to, and she is seriously so nice! When I met her, right away I was thinking, "I can tell that we are gonna be friends"...just like the song :) Last week I met someone my own age at the church band rehearsal (which I'm probably not actually going to join, so don't get the wrong idea haha)! Lisa (who happens to be an increeeedible singer for the band) is all about getting me to know more people around, so afterward she was like, we should all hang out soon. We decided to go to Traverse City for dinner/movie last night with the 3 of us and later one other 22yr old kid from church.
At dinner, Lisa asked how I was liking work and I filled her in on how very little there in to do and just said (like I keep saying) that I just hope that I get to the end of the year and can see why I was here. She said, "I think you're here for lots of reasons...it's not just going to be SEEDS. Look at this - we're all here together because of you." Then we started talking about how/why it's hard to recruit kids to the after school programs and she said she would love to help and has been trying to figure out a way to be at the school to be around kids to eventually help the youth population at the church grow. I said that I feel if I get involved with the youth at the church, it will help get more kids to come to SEEDS too bc it'll let me get to know them. Apparently, there hasn't really been a youth group since these 2 guys were in high school...and now, since our pastor is leaving :( and Lisa will soon be pretty much totally in charge of the youth, she's been thinking of how she could start one back up. She said she's been praying for some help from younger people (majorly lacking in Frankfort) and I told her that I've been praying for more to do and ways to be involved with the youth at the church...umm do you guys believe in coincidence? Cause I don't! It was so amazing! So then the 2 guys, Lisa and I sat there for over an hour, writing down ideas of how to basically rebuild a youth program from the bottom up. We're stooooked!
I seriously cannot even believe how all of that fell together. What started out as a sweet chance to just hang out with people close to my age from Frankfort, turned into a perfectly coordinated group of 4 people who all happen to want to be part of building a church youth program! Seriously, what are the chances? Between Lisa being in charge of the church's youth, these 2 guys who were in this church's youth group when it still existed (so have tons of insight on what worked/didn't, best memories, etc), and me being at the school to have first-hand contact with the kids to get them involved...dang. I just can't believe how perfect this is! More to come on this crazy adventure :) 

And seriously, thanks so much for all the prayers and good thoughts bc I'm feelin em!

Burnt Cookies and A Hippie Bed

Sooooo break is over and it's back to good ol Franky! So far, so good I shuppose! Friday, I met with the pastor of a church I've been going to on Wednesday nights and it helped a ton in deciding about going there for real. I checked it out on Sunday and it's way more traditional than anything I'm used to, but I really like the people and their mission and beliefs. I'm thinking that (aside from the fact that my options are super limited) it's most important that I find somewhere with a good community feel even if it's not what I'm used to. As long as I feel fulfilled at the end of each service, I'll keep going there...plus Wednesday nights are more contemporary so it's otay! Alsoooo when I met with the pastor, he talked to me about chaperoning the youth for a trip to New York and another to North Carolina this summer for rock climbing, hiking, white-water rafting, etc...sweeeet! Hope it works out!!

Not quite done with the move, but it's actually starting to look like I live here now wooo! Uh speaking of my apt, so my stove/oven is this tiny thing... it's gotta be from the 50s! Needless to say, the numbers on the dial are having a rough time holding on. In other words, they're totally wiped off (at least on the oven dial). Sooo I wanted to make my brother and cousins cookies for bringing my stuff up and I feel like the most stereotypical thing possible happened. I couldn't tell what temp I had it on or even whether it was the highest or lowest setting, but I could feel that it was not getting very hot. I turned the dial to the opposite side and put the cookies in and just figured I'd check in a few mins and see how melty they had gotten. Welllll not even 5 mins later, I found this -------------------------------------------------->

Sad day! I had turned it to broil dang it. So these cookies (which Mal would have loooved), were clearly scorched on the tops, but the bottoms were perfect! Luckily my second round was quite a bit less black. Stereotype of a girl in her first solo apartment burning the first thing she attempts to cook...check! 

In other dumb news, my box springs for my bed wouldn't fit through my doorway/stairway, so I have only my mattress sitting on my floor like a little hippie haha! I need to make a choice - do I stick with this so I can keep my big kid bed...or do I trade it for a small bed from home, so that I actually have a frame and box springs? What should I dooo? Ehhh life is full of tough choices. *Don't mind the purple wall :/ Hopefully I'll be painting it yellow soon!

Yesterday I drove passed this restaurant that had a sign out for singer-songwriter night...in FRANKFORT. Oh.My.Gosh. Something to do in Frankfort in the winter. There's hope! I was planning on going, but then I had to try every possible combination in my living room sooo maybe next week. Just another one of the simple things that will get me to summer! That along with these pictures that I put in my window. 

This way, when I get up in the morning and look out at the snow, I can also look at the goal! Snow...Goal...Snow...Goal. K I'll Stay another day. That's how it works :) 

Work is slow, but it's whatever...oh and I'm turning 24 in less than an hour :/ yikes! hahaa

Quotable Moments...

A few quotes that have made me pretty much lose it laughing!
After one of my students proceeded to tell me all of his “can’t believe I didn’t get caught” stories, he asked me if I remember the first time I ever got drunk. Umm…hahaa... I had just sat through him telling me all of these sketchy situations with alcohol and… other things (probably thinking it was super impressive) and then when I told him I have never drank he went nuts. He didn’t believe me at all. He was sure I must be under some sort of code that doesn’t let me talk about it or something.  It was hilarious. Anyway, later he came back and he, one other student, and I were talking and all the sudden he was like, “Sarah claims she’s never drank.”  I went on again trying to convince him that I wasn’t lying and when fiiinally he believed me, he kept the other student and I laughing for a good five minutes with…

“I'm gonna ruffie you and pour alcohol in your mouth!”

“Man I don't think we would have been friends if we were in high school together...no offense!”

“I never said I hated you. I just don’t think we'd be friends...especially since you wont add me on Facebook!”  (The Facebook thing was a whole other situation. He tried to add me and I wrote him a message that said, “no.” – just to be funny, and he was sooo mad and complained about nonstop, saying things like…

Him- “Seriously just add me...why wont you add me?”

Me- “ Well mostly I just already have so many friends, it's getting kinda overloaded.”

Him- “Yeah right, I probably have more friends than you. You probably didn't even have any friends in high school!”

“Why wont you add me? What are you afraid I’m gonna go through and “like” every picture or status or something? Come oooon!” – I did eventually accept, after sufficient joking with him…and the next morning when I got on – 51 notifications. He “liked” the first 51 of my profile pics uuuh! 

Here are some more great quotes that were actually from training, but I just found them saved on my phone…

“There is no best time.” (When talking about waiting for the right time to do something good for others or for yourself.) I feel this is soo true. We’re constantly putting things off for the time in life when it fits or works or is easier or convenient or when we have time or money or stability. In reality – some of these things may never come. If that’s the case – you will wait forever to do what you dream of now. If your heart is pulling you somewhere – make it happen!

“Sometimes to go faster, you must go slower.”

Right before our first meal of amazing food at our incredible hotel in Chicago… “Eat everything you can now. Take it to your room. Get whatever you can get your hands on because it’s rice and beans after this!”

“It’s not just about living at poverty level through the stipend. It’s about bettering yourself as you realize what your community and your nation need.”

When trying to order something at Dunkin Donuts…

Me – “What’s a dunkachino?”

Employee (foreign) – “You want dunkachino?”

Me – “Well no, what is it? Is it like a mocha?”

Employee – “You want mocha?”

Me – “No I just wanna know if it’s like a mocha…umm like half coffee half hot chocolate?”

Employee – “So you want hot chocolate?”

Me – “Yes that sounds perfect!”

Employee – “Extra Larege?”

Me – “Small.”

Employee – “Two?”

Me – “One.”

Hahaha ooh man! Aside from the fact that ordering was hilarious – it was also SO good and I highly recommend it!

On the train – woman came by to collect tickets and I had to sign mine, so she handed me her pen and then walked away. When she came back, I handed the ticket and pen to her and she goes, “Where’s the cap?” I told her I never had it and she said, “Yeah ya did. You dropped it.” It was this older sassy woman and she said it so accusingly – hilarious! Also, I saw her drop the cap earlier so I picked it up for her and heard her give an “mmhmm” under her breath like she was right haha!

Oh the quotes that keep my smile on :)

Oowa Oowa - Christmas break til the 3rd!!! 

love&Christmas lights

Staying Warm...and Stuff

Monday this week I was talking to one of my students about a talent show he wants to be in and he said, “I'm gonna have my brother come and play with me. He's a really good singer, but he has a girlfriend sooo...I just wanted to save you that awkward time of trying to hit on him.” Wow what do you even say to that? …Thanks, I guess. Haha what a punk!  The rest of the day I pretty much did promo stuff for the concert next week and learned about ice fishing…sounds cold. I don’t think I’d like it. There will be blankets and hot cocoa though, so…we’ll leave that as a maybe.

Thursday, I took my first guitar lesson with the after school program– yikes! I mean it was fun…I think. It’s just soo hard! I felt like I had never picked up a guitar in my life!

I went for a walk to the lake yesterday, which was both lovely and freeeezing! I put on approximately half of the clothes that I own and then took off down the icy sidewalk. Fun fact I learned on my way home…such sidewalks can actually keep you extremely warm. It’s true! So there I was walking back from the beautiful sand (which, btw with the snow, I think it  looks like choc-vanilla twist ice cream), and I came across my first “I’m-gonna-drop-you” ice patch. Although it was minor, and I wasn’t even close to falling, the unexpected pep in my step threw a heat wave through me in a hurry. Ya know like that quick jolt of “fewf!” feeling? Yeah it was one of those. Along the rest of the way home, I came across a few more of these, and by the end I didn’t even care. I was SO warm!

Today I went to a community choir concert and…umm…well I didn’t actually make it past the intermission. Although I wasn’t overly entertained by what was in front of me – I did find a new appreciation for Doc and Tony. Never have I ever been more thankful for Doc perrr-fecting cut offs at the stop sign, rather than somewhere in the neighborhood… and for Tony being – I mean no one is perfect, but I’m lacking a word with essentially the exact same meaning :)

Anyway, the point is…now we have a blizzard warning. (I told my mom this and she said "yum what flavor?" haha jokester... it always comes back to ice cream in my life!) Oh snow…who are you and what have you done with summers on the dunes? Speaking of which – I can’t wait!

MyJam: just thinking about how awesome the message is in this song/video…as with so many from The Rocket Summer! Bryce is the man :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrP9SrMJ00c&feature=fvsr

Boots.

So by the end of this week, I decided that I've really gotten myself into an interesting situation with this position. It's still amazing and I adore the kids and feel an awesome connection with a few already...so I'll just leave that part at that. Moving right along to a few highlights...

- I have one student who is basically a child prodigy of guitar...seriously. He is incredible. He picks things up after watching for about hmm..I donno..5 seconds! It's really awesome to see him work with the instructor, voluntarily help the other kids, or just to see him come in a screw around on the guitar after school. I'm stoked to see where he ends up after high school this year! 

- We had a cooking class start this week that was waaay fun! A group of kids and I went over to the church down the road and made a ton of food that ended up being for a community dinner they hold every Weds - so I guess that's what we'll always be cooking for! So nice to be helping out aaand working with an awesome chef (also it was like 90% local or something nuts like that...so sweet)! 

...Afterwards, I went to the church service...honestly, I don't even know what kind of church it was...but I didn't care! I heard it was mostly just music on Wednesdays, so I figured I'd like it. I was right :) The sweetest thing happened right when I walked in the door too! I was on the phone with my mom when this guy came up (he has some special need..although I'm not exactly sure what) and he asked if I was leaving and I said I was there for the service. He got SOO excited and goes "OH MY GOSH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'M SO EXCITED!" as he gave me a huge hug! Then he told me I could sit by him..."but I mean only if you want to..." haha it was the sweetest thing! So of course I did and he was stoked! We sat in the front row and mannn was he excited to sing! I asked if he thought they'd play his fav song and he said, "OF COURSE!" (as if it were the most obvious thing in the world) and then said, "They alwaaays do!" This kid sang soo loud and out of tune! It was nothing short of a blessing to my ears. I was happy to stand next to him and hear him give all he had! It also got me thinking about how awesome it was to be so welcomed by a complete stranger and how I wish that's how we all acted all of the time to newcomers or old friends...anyone! So inspired by such love!

- Thursday we had guitar lessons and they went really well! All of the acoustics were used up and we even had to get into the electrics bc so many kids came! Plus the instructor..what? This guy is ridiculous! Sooo good! Made for such a fun day and good end to the week of programming! I'm shinkin I should be bringing my guitar and joining in since I have no clue what he was teaching them haha...next time!

- Come to the May, Seth, and Luke concert on the 16thhhh! It's going to be way fun, is only $5, annnd has a free dinner before that's going to be made by our cooking club along with 2 chefs! Just do it!  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177352818957917

**Let's not kid ourselves..we're all here for the same reason. You want embarrassing stories about me. And here's number one in a real long time. So I was sitting on the couch (my desk chair basically) with my feet on the table, when I looked down and thought...dang. those boots look like way diff sizes...must be how my feet are sitting. So I adjust my feet in various ways before finally feeling like "oh crap!" and checking the inside. As I braced myself for the "I'm gonna feel like an idiot if these are 7 1/2 and 8," I got my courage up. So I wear a 7 1/2, which is the very size I discovered when looking in my right shoe. The left, however, ummmm...any guesses? It was a TEN! WHAT!? I have had these boots for over 2 years I think! I have no excuse that's good enough to justify such a folly, but let me try anyway. The thing is, these boots (that I love so much) have a wedge heel, so naturally my foot slides forward a bit...I just always thought I wasn't lacing the left one tight enough and that's why it was sliding...realistically I didn't know it was thaaat big of a difference! Uh...so now what? Do I still wear the boots? Oi! How embarrassiiiiing! For you! (Had to know that was coming!) 

- Well what can I say...that's all I've got. This is my life at the moment. Trying to fit into my new shoes at good ol SEEDS, only to discover that I have one big and one small shoe to fill...hmmm??

love, guitars, and cocoa