I'm back...for now! Let's see how long it lasts this time. I'm shooting to post at least once a week, so feel free to hold me accountable.
I'm officially back in Denver and ready to hit the grind. We have our kick-off this week and fingers crossed will have a few volunteer prospects show up. I'm pretty excited to see the kiddos too! It's almost been a month since I've seen them, way too long!
So this is going to be a short one just to get me back in the groove of things. Also, I'm watching Pitch Perfect right now and I am trying really hard to not rock out since Cris is asleep, but it's soooo hard. This movie is my new favorite and is absolutely amazing!
I'll catch you up on the last year and a half later.
Much love.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Saturday, July 30, 2011
What's Today?
August is literally a day away. I feel like just yesterday I was running out the door on my way to our End of the Year/Summer Kick-Off BBQ.Where has my summer gone? When you have every single week planned out, things can pass you in the blink of an eye. In the past two months, we have had 2 weeks of VBS, 1 week of FCA day camp, 2 different weeks of overnight camp, a two day Wii tournament, 1 week of drop-in hours, a fundraiser, 3 community outreaches - Summer Festival, Bikes and BBQ, School Supply BBQ, a name brainstorming, several dinners and BBQs with families, and n
umerous meetings.Today has been spent laying around the house, only leaving to run a few errands and treat myself to a decent dinner where I don't have to clean the dishes. (Our sink is currently leaking which makes doing the dishes TONS of fun.) Tomorrow I leave for a 4 day training in Colorado Springs with everyone on staff. It should be a really
good time, I'm actually looking forward to it.The only thing I am looking forward to more is Thursday! Mom is flying in around 12 and after staff meeting we are hitting the road to drive back to Oklahoma, where I will get to enjoy 2 GLORIOUS weeks of vacation. I am so excited for it, well except for the heat I'll be coming into. I mean seriously Oklahoma...100 degree days non-stop for the last month...NOT OKAY! You should work on that before I get there.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Like Father, Like Daughter
Working for a non-profit has definitely sharpened my skills at saving money, or so I like to think.
We decided to use lanyards for name tags this year. As a youth ministry staff, it took a while to convince ourselves to spend the money. But, after discussing although the pros (long term name tags for multiple events, easily identifying our kids at the rec center where we hold camp, an easier way to track and enforce discipline with kids traveling to multiple stations during camp, the list goes on and on...) we bit the bullet and made the investment.
Within the first day, several kids were coming up to us with their name tags in pieces. The plastic sleeves holding their names were breaking due to a number of issues. Determined to not let this affect our budget, I went to my bag of tricks. (Which is primarily filled with tricks from my wonderful father)
A roll of duct tape and a hole punch later....the name tags were fixed and held up through another 2 weeks of camp and we plan on using them for camp in July. Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me how to improvise, get as much life out of one thing as possible, not be wasteful, and most importantly duct tape can fix anything! (I can tell you that while I am enjoying saving money, the ugliness of some of the name tags is driving me absolutely bonkers! My OCD, perfectionist at it's finest!)
We decided to use lanyards for name tags this year. As a youth ministry staff, it took a while to convince ourselves to spend the money. But, after discussing although the pros (long term name tags for multiple events, easily identifying our kids at the rec center where we hold camp, an easier way to track and enforce discipline with kids traveling to multiple stations during camp, the list goes on and on...) we bit the bullet and made the investment.Within the first day, several kids were coming up to us with their name tags in pieces. The plastic sleeves holding their names were breaking due to a number of issues. Determined to not let this affect our budget, I went to my bag of tricks. (Which is primarily filled with tricks from my wonderful father)
A roll of duct tape and a hole punch later....the name tags were fixed and held up through another 2 weeks of camp and we plan on using them for camp in July. Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me how to improvise, get as much life out of one thing as possible, not be wasteful, and most importantly duct tape can fix anything! (I can tell you that while I am enjoying saving money, the ugliness of some of the name tags is driving me absolutely bonkers! My OCD, perfectionist at it's finest!)
A Taste of Home
When I type taste of home it makes me think of amazing food, i.e. Ricardo's, Freddie's Steak House, Los Cabos, and of course BUENO! Oh how I miss these places!! But the taste of home I'm referring to now is people! Although during a frustrating day last week, a good friend trying to cheer me up said let's go wherever you want to go to eat, I said Bueno, but it was 6 hours away. Being the amazing friend she is, she was up for it. We however didn't go.... mainly because they would have been closed by the time we got there :)
Back to people and relationships...
This past week we had a youth group come and do missions for us, during the days they ran a VBS for our kids, during the evenings they did different outreaches and served at other ministries in the community. It is their third year with us, and I LOVE them! Every year we get a mix of return students and new students, and every year I feel like I grow closer and closer to these amazing students! They bring such a taste of Oklahoma with them, even though they are a local group. It started last year when the boys tortured me all week with water guns through out the days and ended the week by throwing me in the pool. This year, it started from day 1 and escalated through the week. It reminded me of all my "fights" with the guys I grew up with, the guys a few years younger than me, and the teens I used to work with at Liberty.
My favorite memory from the week....when they gave all the kids water balloons and "dared them to be good" while telling them to attack me. I started running, because let's face it, when you give kids water balloons and tell them it's their choice whether or not they attack their leader, they're going to attack. As I turned from running, I realized my head start wasn't enough as I saw at least 40 kids running for me. I gave in and embraced the water balloon explosion that was heading my way, laughing the entire time.
How is it possible that I get paid to hang out with kids and teens all day?!?! Thank you God for allowing me to work in this ministry!!
Much love!
Back to people and relationships...
This past week we had a youth group come and do missions for us, during the days they ran a VBS for our kids, during the evenings they did different outreaches and served at other ministries in the community. It is their third year with us, and I LOVE them! Every year we get a mix of return students and new students, and every year I feel like I grow closer and closer to these amazing students! They bring such a taste of Oklahoma with them, even though they are a local group. It started last year when the boys tortured me all week with water guns through out the days and ended the week by throwing me in the pool. This year, it started from day 1 and escalated through the week. It reminded me of all my "fights" with the guys I grew up with, the guys a few years younger than me, and the teens I used to work with at Liberty.
My favorite memory from the week....when they gave all the kids water balloons and "dared them to be good" while telling them to attack me. I started running, because let's face it, when you give kids water balloons and tell them it's their choice whether or not they attack their leader, they're going to attack. As I turned from running, I realized my head start wasn't enough as I saw at least 40 kids running for me. I gave in and embraced the water balloon explosion that was heading my way, laughing the entire time.
How is it possible that I get paid to hang out with kids and teens all day?!?! Thank you God for allowing me to work in this ministry!!
Much love!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Summer Time
It's summer! Which means it's crazy busy!
One week of day camp down, it was a huge success! We are blessed with amazing volunteer groups!!! The picture is one of our upcoming middle school students praying for our day!
The kids and teens are away at overnight camp all this week! Spending the week hanging out with our middle school students....LOVE THEM! (for now, we'll see how I feel next week, it's a very hot and cold relationship...I'm constantly wondering how anyone liked us as at that age, below you can see me attempting to take a picture with some kids and the middle schoolers decided to attack me mid picture.)
When the kids get back we have
two more weeks of day camp, a Wii Tournament, a week of overnight camp for middle school, and a few other things I'm forgetting. Needless to say, it's going be a very busy summer! And I couldn't be happier.Summer is the time when I get to spend tons of time driving around with my kids, blaring crazy loud music, watching movies, laughing at the most ridiculous things. It is slowly becoming my favorite time of year....fall better step up it's game if it wants to remain on top. (Who are we really kidding, nothing can top football season...I'm already counting down the days.)
Take time to enjoy the simple things today!
Much love,
D
Saturday, October 23, 2010
A Functional Family
I just got home from our quarterly volunteer meeting. We had a family style dinner over at Angelina's followed by some great talk time. It's incredible to see how this hodge podge of a group has come together and grown over the past year. I look back to a year ago when we were just getting to know each other unsure of how we all would work together. Everyone was so different and had their own ideas of how things should work and be done. Our meetings were short and to the point.
Now, a year later, we sit and talk for a few hours. We laugh together, share about our lives, pray together. We have become a family and I love it. I look forward to the times that our group can come together and just spend time with each other!!
I look forward to another year with an amazing team!!
Now, a year later, we sit and talk for a few hours. We laugh together, share about our lives, pray together. We have become a family and I love it. I look forward to the times that our group can come together and just spend time with each other!!
I look forward to another year with an amazing team!!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
I'm Alive...
5 months....
WOW! I didn't even realize how long it had been since I last posted. Time has LITERALLY flown by. I feel like just yesterday I was preparing for summer, and now it's fall and things are going absolutely crazy. August was supposed to be my "down month". If you could only hear how hysterically I'm laughing at the idea of it being a "down month" right now.
Summer was AMAZING!! It went by so fast, but it was soooo good. We had so many kids come to our programs, we ran 3 weeks of VBS camp, took two sets of kids to an overnight camp in the Springs, had a Wii tournament, and did so much more. Several of our kids committed or rededicated their lives to Christ at camps and our Summer Festival. I got the opportunity to sit and talk with a few of them through out the summer about their decisions and what God was doing in their lives. I can remember writing a few years ago that if I could find a job just sitting and listening to kids and teens talk about their lives I would be content. I get to do this now and I can't tell you what it does to me! I LOVE it!!! They make up some of my favorite days and make the jobs I hate doing so worth it!
We've officially kicked off our fall programming and are gearing up for the holidays, and yes I'm aware it's only September. It takes so much planning to pull off the holiday events, you can't even imagine how much goes into it. I'm still running the Wednesday night programming, and we have a lot more kids this year, which is going to be a lot more work, but I'm up for the challenge. I'm also starting up a program for our middle school kids on Mondays, that's going to be where a lot of my energy and focus is for the next month, but I'm pretty excited about it. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm officially on staff, unfortunately it's still not a paid position and I'm still raising support. But God has a plan and I know this is where He wants me, which is so comforting!
My roommates and I just signed a 1 year lease on a house in Aurora. It's a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car garage with a HUGE backyard. I love it!! We are in the process of repainting, the people who lived here before had a pretty interesting taste and the walls that are white are so dingy and gross looking. I'm hoping that we will have everything repainted and decorated by the end of the month so that we can have a cook-out before the weather gets ugly. I'm moving Tyson out here during the holidays, I'm probably going to bring him back with me after Christmas! I'm so excited to have him out here.
This is my life for the most part right now! I'm making a fall resolution to do better at keeping you all updated! I feel like I make this comment about every 2 to 3 posts....
Muchos love!
WOW! I didn't even realize how long it had been since I last posted. Time has LITERALLY flown by. I feel like just yesterday I was preparing for summer, and now it's fall and things are going absolutely crazy. August was supposed to be my "down month". If you could only hear how hysterically I'm laughing at the idea of it being a "down month" right now.
Summer was AMAZING!! It went by so fast, but it was soooo good. We had so many kids come to our programs, we ran 3 weeks of VBS camp, took two sets of kids to an overnight camp in the Springs, had a Wii tournament, and did so much more. Several of our kids committed or rededicated their lives to Christ at camps and our Summer Festival. I got the opportunity to sit and talk with a few of them through out the summer about their decisions and what God was doing in their lives. I can remember writing a few years ago that if I could find a job just sitting and listening to kids and teens talk about their lives I would be content. I get to do this now and I can't tell you what it does to me! I LOVE it!!! They make up some of my favorite days and make the jobs I hate doing so worth it!
We've officially kicked off our fall programming and are gearing up for the holidays, and yes I'm aware it's only September. It takes so much planning to pull off the holiday events, you can't even imagine how much goes into it. I'm still running the Wednesday night programming, and we have a lot more kids this year, which is going to be a lot more work, but I'm up for the challenge. I'm also starting up a program for our middle school kids on Mondays, that's going to be where a lot of my energy and focus is for the next month, but I'm pretty excited about it. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm officially on staff, unfortunately it's still not a paid position and I'm still raising support. But God has a plan and I know this is where He wants me, which is so comforting!
My roommates and I just signed a 1 year lease on a house in Aurora. It's a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car garage with a HUGE backyard. I love it!! We are in the process of repainting, the people who lived here before had a pretty interesting taste and the walls that are white are so dingy and gross looking. I'm hoping that we will have everything repainted and decorated by the end of the month so that we can have a cook-out before the weather gets ugly. I'm moving Tyson out here during the holidays, I'm probably going to bring him back with me after Christmas! I'm so excited to have him out here.
This is my life for the most part right now! I'm making a fall resolution to do better at keeping you all updated! I feel like I make this comment about every 2 to 3 posts....
Muchos love!
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