Birthday weekend...part one

My dear friends, Deanna and Denise (twins), have a birthday two days after mine on March 29th. We often do something special to celebrate our birthdays. This year we decided to go to Indianapolis for the weekend.

We drove down on Friday afternoon. I looked at magazines and fell asleep to my ipod while Denise drove. We stayed at a nice Holiday Inn Express downtown (that we had gotten for a good price on hotwire.com!) After getting settled in our room we decided to head out for our evening activities.

We had dinner at Yats...a Cajun place in downtown Indy. Denise had heard about it from her friend and we decided to try it out. We each got something different. Unfortunately the dish that I ordered - a shrimp creole dish- wasn't really all that good and I ended up throwing over half of it away. Denise got a mushroom dish of some sort that had good flavor, but kind of a slimy texture that I wouldn't have been able to eat an entire plate of. Deanna hit the jackpot! She ordered a chicken chili dish that was very tasty!

My less than amazing shrimp creole dish.

After dinner we walked down the street to a place called Comedy Sportz. It is a casual little improv club. The "sportz" part of the name comes from the fact that there are two teams of comedians that are competing against each other. It was really funny...CLEAN and funny! I

Some of the comedians doing something that was funny.

Deanna, Denise, and I at our table at Comedy Sportz.

When we got back to the hotel we played cards and listened to music. It was a fun evening and I slept like a rock in the comfy hotel bed. :)

My birthday was really good this year! I celebrated a bunch and felt very loved. Here are some photos from birthday celebrations that I was a part of. (I'll post a separate entry about my birthday weekend getaway with the Rissers.)

This is the RD team. We went out to Panera on my birthday to celebrate. Me, Launa (my supervisor), Chad, and Alex.

The night before my birthday I was taken out to dinner at Chilis by the ladies that live in the house next door to me here on campus. Deb, me, and Rachel. We imitating a pose done earlier in the evening by a little boy at the table next to us. I don't know why my eyes are all squinty!

These are the flowers that my staff gave me for my birthday along with a beautiful little scrapbooked card. Very sweet!

Angie is a little girl from my home group at church that shares my birthday. We celebrated our birthday together at the Becks. She turned 10 and I turned....?? :)

Haircut

before the haircut

A week or so before my birthday I decided it was time for a haircut. I figured a new year of life meant it was time for a new look. The day before my birthday I went to Wal Mart and looked a some hairstyle magazines. I found a cut that I like and thought about buying the magazine...until I saw the pricetag...$8.00! For a magazine! CRAZY! I'm way too cheap to spend that kind of money on a magazine, especially just for 2 photos of a haircut. A friend came over to visit me that evening and I was telling her about the cute hairstyle. She suggested that I take the digital camera back to Wal Mart with me and take a photo of the page of the magazine. I told her that I'd get in trouble, so she agreed to come with me to help shield me from the Wal Mart workers while I took the photos. You should have seen me crouching on the floor of the magazine section taking photos of the hairstyle! It was crazy, but fun! I took the camera along to my appointment on the morning of my birthday and my amazing hairstylist, Karisa, did a good job of cutting to similar to the photo I had for her.

after the haircut

Playing catch up

I was at a friend from college's house today and she told me that she misses reading my blog. I felt bad since I know that I enjoy reading hers about her baby, so I decided to try and catch you all up on the past couple of months...

The weeks of March 10th and 17th were full of interviews. We had two interview processes going on simultaneously. One was for our Jr/Sr small group housing program(SGH) and one was for the RAs for the 08-09 school year. Most days I spent at least 2 hours - sometimes up to 4 asking students one of two sets of questions. The questions are good ones and give us helpful insight into whether the should get the placement/job they want. The hard part is that the answers aren't drastically different, so it's hours upon hours of the same questions and the same answers.

The SGH housing process is a bit easier at the end because the groups are scored and houses are assigned based on the numbers - that means the real work is done at the end of each interview when we score the groups. The RA process gets harder at the end - as we look at the score sheets, but rely on more personal hunches on how we assemble our respective teams. I'm always glad when the entire process is done!

Friday the 14th we had a Connector Night Life event. CNL is a late night gathering that is open to all students and occurs in the building where I live - usually from 10 PM - 1 AM. We had live music in the coffee shop, a Guitar Hero tourney in the big TV lounge, a Texas Hold'em tournament in the 1st floor lounge and ice cream sundaes in the game room. My staff did a great job of running the night and making it all go smoothly!

The gals running the ice cream sundae bar - Grace, Kat, Taylor, & Heather

Live music in the Java Junction.

Me - obviously enjoying myself at CNL!

The 23rd was Easter Sunday. I am in charge of most of the food activities at church and I wanted to do something special for Easter Sunday. This is always a challenge, given that our church doesn't really have a kitchen - we have a fridge & microwave, but it's in the basement and not very useful for a "meal" type event. So I brainstormed and got several folks to lend a hand with a buffet of sorts for Easter breakfast. We had our usual coffee spread and added some milk and assorted juices to make it a beverage table. We added a table with a huge fresh fruit salad, donuts & cookies from Dutchmaid Bakery, and homemade pecan rolls from one of our member's elderly mother. There was a third table with breakfast burritos that we assembled as people came through the line - tortilla, eggs, sausage, cheese and salsa. The meal was a bit success and we had many people who expressed appreciation for all the work that went into it. Thankfully I had a good sized group that had volunteered to help, so it really wasn't all that much work.

I'll post soon with photos from my haircut and birthday weekend!

First week of March

Most of the first week of March was spent with my nose buried in a textbook as I caught up on my reading that was due for class that week. I was thankful that I am a fast reader and that my books for class are interesting. Class itself was ok. I had a lot of other things on my mind, so it was hard to pay attention. I almost skipped out on the last afternoon session, but then decided that I should get as much out of the class as possible. I was glad that I did. It was probably one of the best class discussions that we had the entire semester. Good stuff!

After class was over on Friday I hightailed it back to Goshen because my staff was going out for our March fun activity. We had decided to get dressed up and go to South Bend and have dinner at a Thai restaurant. We had a fun time together. The food was quite tasty. The atmosphere was intimate, but not overly romantic. And the company was superb! I so enjoy hanging out with this group of young adults. Here are some photos from our evening out(for some reason I only have photos of the gals from that evening!)...

Rachel & Taylor

Kathryn & Heather

Grace & me

Spring Break

Goshen is unique in that our "spring break" doesn't really happen in the spring. It's at the mid point of the semester, so it's usually in what would still be considered winter around here. This year it was the last week of February. There was still much snow on the ground and no signs of spring on the trees yet. We do not close the residence halls during spring break, so life pretty much goes on as usual for my job, except that there are far less students on campus.

I did manage to take one day off during that week and enjoyed some relaxation. My RAs had bought me a gift certificate for Christmas to a day spa over in Granger where I could get a massage. I had trouble scheduling it's use over the holidays, so I did it the Tuesday of break. It was an amazing experience! I've had a massage before, but this one far exceeded the experience the previous two times. The JaRoss Day Spa knows how to treat you right! The atmosphere was serene and everyone treated you like royalty - from the warm foot soak pre-massage to the sparkling glass of water in the sauna post massage. The massage it's self was a full hour long and "did a body good." I had a big knot in my neck/shoulder area. She worked on that long and hard until it was gone. It was one of those hurts that felt good. I felt refreshed beyond compare at the end my of time there.

After the massage I continued to pamper my self with dinner at Panera and the afternoon at Barnes & Noble looking at books. I met a friend at Max & Erma's for dinner - yummy! It was a great break from the pressures of work and school. Thanks again to my wonderful RAs for making it possible!

So very behind on this...

Well, I've been quite lax in my blogging recently...it's been almost two months since my last post! It's been a busy year - where do I begin?! I guess we'll pick up where I left off in February.

February is usually pretty quiet around campus with students busy stuck inside studying and creating their own fun. The RDs have been having some fun of their own. We borrowed the Wii game console from another department on campus to use for some campus activities and then kept it longer for our own recreational use! It is a lot more fun than most "video games" out there. I enjoyed and played the bowling, tennis, & golf games quite a bit. But the REAL fun came when I found the boxing game though! The guys laughed at me because I would be punching like a crazy woman and would yell at the screen. It was a blast! Here's a video that Chad made of Alex and I playing. Enjoy! :)

February RA fun night

Once a month my staff has a fun social event that we do. I believe it builds deeper connections between us and adds some great memories to the RA experience. Yesterday was when we did our February fun event. We had a working/playing evening at my place.

We started by gathering together at my apartment and then headed out into the Connector to organize furniture. There are 11 different lounges in the Connector and each one is supposed to have a specific set of furniture in it. Students have moved furniture from lounge to lounge and floor to floor to accommodate their personal furniture needs, so it was our job to move everything back to where it belongs. It took us about an hour to complete the move...just working up a good appetite we decided! :)

Bryce strikes a pose during the furniture rearranging.

Then we went back to my apartment and made personal pizzas. We had lots of different toppings - sausage, chicken, ham, pepperoni, peppers, onions, pineapple, pesto, etc... We visited while creating some culinary masterpieces. As the pizzas baked we quickly ran through our weekly meeting agenda. Then we feasted on our pizzas, sun chips and veggie tray.

The gang ready to make their pizzas!

After dinner we played a game that I learned from my friend, Kristine over Christmas break. It was fun and caused quite a bit of uproarious laughter! At the end of the evening we were sorry to leave, but knew that studies and other duties were calling our names.

My circle of awesome RAs!

Pottery Bayou

Friday night I went out for the evening with my friend Rebecca. Her birthday was last month, but we've both been so busy that we haven't had a chance to see one another since then. We found that we were both free on Friday, so we took the opportunity to go do something special to celebrate. She wanted to go eat at the Boathouse restaurant down in Winona Lake. I, of course, didn't have her present yet, so I decided to try and find something fun to do in addition to dinner out that evening as her gift. I used my friend (Google) and found a place called "Pottery Bayou" that was a block over from the restaurant. It is a pottery painting shop. You go in, choose your piece to paint, and paint it. Then you leave it there and they put a glaze on it and fire it for you. I have to go down next week to pick it up. It was a lot of fun! We got to sit and talk while we exercised our creative side. We both ended up painting mugs and were pleased with how they turned out. I am excited to see the finished product! :)

Here are some photos of us painting...

Showing off our mugs!

Rebecca painting the sea around the bottom of her mug.

Me working on some little detail of a flower.

After dinner we went over to the Boathouse and had a delicious dinner! We shared a grilled chicken salad and a chicken/bacon wrap. Tasty! We also had a chance to have some deeper conversation about the things God is doing in our lives. It was a wonderful evening!

LEAD Retreat

This is a looooong post. Sit back and read a bit of the good work God is doing in this stubborn woman's life....

This weekend was good. Really good. Not a superficial fun playing around good, but a significant life "tuning up" good! Our church has a leadership group called the "LEAD community" which consists of all the ministry leaders from church. I am a part of this group due to my roles with college students, the Living Room, and our Home Group Support team. This weekend was a retreat led by our church overseer, Keith from Wylie, Texas. I have been looking forward to this because Keith is always an inspirational speaker and I needed a break from work!

I drove up by myself on Friday evening and proceeded to get a little lost...very frustrating for me - someone who prides herself in being able to travel all over the country without getting lost. So, I arrived in a bit of a sour mood. Satan took the opportunity to stir that sour mood and fed me all sorts of lies about not being worthy of being there and picking at the tender wound of being the only single person there (at least of a "certain" age). I busied myself with making coffee and didn't really enter into worship or the things that Keith was teaching on - I was too busy stirring my pot of self pity and discontent. After the session was done we all hung out in the lounge area snacking and visiting. I finally started to loosen up around the time that we all went to bed, but was still in a bit of a funk. I knew I needed to do some business with God, but instead put in my ipod earphones and headed off to sleep.

I planned on waking up early and talking to God before the morning session. I ended up sleeping in longer than planned and then the morning session with Keith got moved up 15 minutes early and I had to bust a move just to be presentable. Again I busied myself with the task of making coffee and didn't engage much in worship. Then Keith stated talking. He was speaking words that seemed directed straight at my heart! I sat there at full attention taking in everything he was saying.

He was speaking about change. Here are a few of my favorite quotes and how each resonated with my own life these days...

"Relationally we either getting bitter or better." -I have been avoiding some of the relational challenges in my life and instead of life getting any better, I can sense the bitterness that is creeping in and showing up in ugly little snippy comments from time to time.

"Jesus is on the move on the Earth - if we are standing still we end up getting further from God." -I haven't been actively pursuing God in daily quiet times. Rather than being at a stand still with God, He feels further and further away.

"Community is the enemy of depression. Isolation is its ally." -When I start feeling overwhelmed I hole up in my apartment and instead of feeling more "rested and focused" as I think I am going to, I end up feeling lonely and sad and hopeless.

At the end of his talk I was thrilled that he said we were going to have a time of prayer for each other in the afternoon session. If I'm real honest, there was a little fear mixed in with the excitement...what if the word someone had for me was a bit too "insightful" and laid my heart out in the open for others to judge. What rubbish! Satan is so good at deceiving us - whispering little lies in our ears to hopefully make us shrink back and run when God wants to pour good into us.

The final session came around - the one where we were going to pray for each other. I sat near the back and started singing along with the worship music that was playing. Then the tears started to flow. I felt God revealing some hard spots in my heart and it was like he was rubbing ointment on those spots. Kind of like when you have a knot in your neck and it hurts, yet feels SO good at the same time when someone works it out. I sat there for a while with God ministering to my heart until a friend (Brenda B) came over and prayed for me. We talked and prayed for about 10 minutes. I don't remember exactly what she prayed over me, but I know it was good! I came away with a vision/plan for some steps I can take to really grab hold of God in a fresh way so that it doesn't feel like he's so far away. She also spoke some important words of encouragement that I know came straight from God's heart to mine. When she left I sat still crying, but more tears of joy than ones of being overwhelmed and lost. Then two more dear friends (Tracy & Chrissy) came over to pray for me. They hadn't seen Brenda pray for me, but the things they prayed echoed what Brenda and I had talked/prayed about. That was a real confirmation to me of my prayers with Brenda.

I left the retreat with a much lighter heart than I've had in quite some time! I feel life in my bones like I haven't in a long long time! I am excited to see what new things God is going to reveal to me and to serve him with my all!

Until later....