Wild Weeks (cont.)

  After recovering the rest of the week, the weekend had its fair share of activities also. I went straight from work to the Tween Olympic event. I didn't have much planning in on this one, the ministry director did though, and it was loads of fun! There were apple shot puts, 100m dash with potato sacks, synchronized routines, and a bonfire with all the goodies. It was a good time, and we had quite a few new kids that I didn't recognize. Yay for outreach!

Saturday we took my sister shopping as part of her birthday present. We spend the day out of town shopping, filled our bellies at Red Robin (yummm), and headed home. It was a fun and successful day. She got quite a few things, and I even ended up with new work shoes and a sweater. Sunday was usual, ending with a bonfire at youth group, and the leaders enjoying some fellowship over half priced appetizer at Applebee's.

Then it was Monday again. Do your weekends go by that fast? I wish mine didn't..

This week has just been alright, but I hope its gets even better. I came down with something the other day. It escalated and yesterday my eyes and nose were runny and itchy, I was achy, I had fluid in my ears, and just felt lousy. I came home from work at noon to rest, and didn't even go in today. Last night after Caleb got home, he said he was going to pick out new phones. I knew I shouldn't have, but I had to tag along and pick out my phone. It ended up taking a lot longer than we thought, but we were lucky and were able to take advantage of some major sales, cutting our checkout fees in half! So we retreated home with take out chinese and I stayed home while Caleb went to run the movie in the park. I was bummed I didn't get to go, but I just felt so lousy all I wanted to do was lay on the couch, so that's exactly what I did. I played with my new phone (ok, it was more like trying to figure out how to work it. That phone is too smart for its own good), blew my nose a zillion times, and watched a whole DVD worth of NCIS episodes.

So, here I sit on my couch, bored, in pajamas :) My morning started with green tea, ramen in a cup (because, when you don't feel good and nothing is appetizing, you eat anything that sounds remotely appetizing), and Live With Kelly. I'm starting to feel a little better, but I still have zero energy. Last night Caleb brought me some medicine, and chocolate, so I'm all set for now. At least I'm not as itchy today. It sounds like I'll be missing a jewelry party tonight, but hopefully I'll be feeling up to going out by tomorrow. Caleb's parents bought us tickets to see comedian Yakov Smirnoff tomorrow night, and I was so excited. He'll be about a half hour north of here, and I haven't got to explore that town much, so we were going to make a day out of it. I'll be really bummed if we can't make it.

Yakov Smirnoff

Well, that's all for now :) I'll be back eventually. 

   

Wild Weeks

It has been too long since I've been on here, this might be rather long :)

So much has happened since I was here last. I've had a few more memorable instances down by the marina I told you about in my last post, the one by the coast guard station. The one that pops into my mind is from last Thursday. Before going downtown to watch the free movies in the park that Caleb helps with, I was taking Honey for her walk. We came upon a family who was trying to take pictures with the car ferry behind them as it came in. I offered to take their picture but I don't think they heard me, but strangely no one else would talk to them even though there were about fifteen people there. I stood, just a few feet away, and noticed that what sounded like clear speech from a few feet away was actually half grunting and trying to form words; this family was all partially deaf and could only speak a little bit. So I thought a minute and got the father's attention, enunciated the best I could and held up three fingers as I asked if they'd like me to take a picture of them together. They eagerly agreed with the biggest smiles I've seen from tourists in a while. So I took the picture, stood around for a minute and continued on my way. It shocked me how happy they were, but it brightened my day.

Picture of everyone that my uncle photoshopped

To go back a little bit, a few weeks ago was our family reunion. Contrary to many people, I love family reunions, and attend every chance I get. I may vaguely recognize people, but I don't know who half of the people are :) isn't that how reunions are supposed to go? Thank goodness for name tags. This reunion was special to me. In the last few years I have realized just how precious family is. The reunion is from my great grandma's family, which was very large. However, now there are only four of the sisters left, and they're not doing very well healthwise. It really made me think though, how they are the basis of the reunions. Will these get togethers still carry on when they are no longer with us? I hope so. To see them all together talking, leaned in so they could hear each other, was so precious. They may live far away, but they just pick up where they left off and go from there. When their parents immigrated here from Hungary, they sought a different life, and they built up a family. It's crazy to think that there are only a few of that generation left.. and they live far away from each other. It seems everyone lives far away from each other now. Seeing all the other family is great too. It's usually the one time every two years that I get to see most of them. I was bummed Caleb couldn't go, he would've got a kick out of the "silent" auction, which was exactly the opposite of silent. But it was a fun day regardless, and I got to catch up with quite a few of the cousins. I also got to see my grandparents and a few girls from church. It was good to be in my hometown for a weekend.

As the weekend ended and I drove home with my sister as co-pilot, we talked about our upcoming trip with the youth group to the amusement park, Cedar Point. I hadn't realized we left the very next day, so I tried to gear up and mentally create a packing list. My sister had never been there before, but she had been looking up the roller coasters and watching videos filmed from the first cart, so she was pretty psyched to finally get to go. I was just glad I wasn't one of the people who had to drive the fifteen passenger vans there and back. So as Monday afternoon rolled around, we headed to the church and I got a phone call asking if I would drive one of the vans.. because no one else could. I nervously agreed to do so, and don't regret it. Besides being very tired from the weekend before, I made it through. A lot of prayer, caffeine, and music aided my consciousness though :) We arrived at the church we were staying the night at around 1am, and shortly after crashed for the night. We got up, had breakfast, and headed out to CP, which was only now a mile away. After splitting into groups and heading into the park, the first ride our group decided to go on was the Mantis (right).

Personally, it is one of my favorite rides. My sister had told me that she didn't want to go on some of the really big coasters because she
can't breathe and her stomach hurts, but we learned that she can defy breathing and a stomachache real quickly. She absolutely loved Mantis. The one neither of us felt like going on was the Top Thrill Dragster. It is 420 feet high and accelerates to 120mph in 4seconds. It's crazy. I had been on it before, and didn't think it was all that its cracked up to be. But halfway through the day as we were walking towards its, my sister said, "lets go on Dragster," so on we went.

Normally there's a wait that is a few hours long, but due to rain that morning the park was pretty clear. We were sitting on the cart in ten minutes, ready to go. There were some shaking knees, but as soon as it shoots you forward there is no turning back. So up we went... parallel to the ground, the only thing around us for a split second was the blue sky. Then we peaked, spiraled downward, and before we knew it our ride of less than 20 seconds was over. There was talk of going on Millennium Force next (right), because its the next smallest, and my sister had just been on the largest one, so we did. It was fun. As the afternoon became evening, those of us who were driving met up to talk, and were told to get some rest. I was told to get some sleep on a bench, but refused because a small young girl sleeping on a bench in the middle of a very large amusement park doesn't strike me as a good idea. So we found a grassy spot and I tried to nap while some friends sat around and talked. We headed for home around nine, and again with much prayer, caffeine, and music, made it home around 4am, and crashed for some much needed sleep.

After driving one of the vans with thirteen high schoolers back and forth, I understand why the drivers of the vans when I was in youth group needed quiet, good behavior, etc. I always knew it was good, of course, but I didn't quite realize how nerve racking it actually is to drive a very large vehicle with other lives in your hands. Kudos to all the youth leaders who do that on a regular basis - you deserve some major props for sure!


(to be continued)

Marina Lights

Today started, and almost ended, as an ordinary day. We got up and went to work, came home and had dinner, made a trip to see my parents, sister, and great grandma, and then came back home just in time for a walk before it got too dark.

As different as the two towns are, I find more to love about each every day. Tonight we decided to go for a walk, and I wanted to watch the carferry leave on its nightly journey to Wisconsin. Where our favorite spot to watch it leave is, there's a walk loop. I always make it a little longer that it actually is, but it's all right along the water and absolutely gorgeous. First, I start out in the marina playground, go past the marina, and start the actual loop. It takes you to a narrow path with boulders and a railing on one side and boulders, yard and condos on the other. The water is right next to you on one side, and on it's other side is the end of a peninsula through the harbor. The carferry passes right through there.. and its so close you can see the expressions on passengers' faces. As you keep walking, you can either go straight to a small breakwall or turn to continue the loop through a boat launch, and pass a fish cleaning station. You go up  a few blocks, and then are back to the marina. It doesn't take too long, and since I felt like being by the water, we took the narrow way that we had come from back to where we started. The sky was blue and grey with white puffs added here and there, and you could see the green gleam of the lighthouse, the faint lights of the carferry, and the silhouette of a sailboat outlined on the horizon. Upon noticing the sailboat, we decided to sit atop a few of the boulders and wait for it so we could watch it come into the harbor. It was steadily getting darker, and as I looked around I couldn't believe I had never witnessed the sight before. On one side you could see the lake, lighthouse, boats, and channel coming into the harbor, and on the other you could see the marina, the playground, the carferry docks, an the channel that leads to a few smaller marinas further inland. Everything was lit up. Lights glowed orange and yellow, dotted by a few white ones, and reflected off the dark glassy water like the sun does at high noon. I sat there with Caleb and Honey on a boulder, in a spot that was scarcely lit, and felt tiny amid all the lights. Everything gleamed around me, and the sky seemed to fade darker and darker shades of blue and grey. I felt so small, and everything looked so gorgeous.

After getting home and logging onto to Facebook to fill myself in on the latest happenings, I saw a friends pictures of East Michigan sunsets, and had memory after memory flow in. My mom loves sunsets, storms, and everything like them. If there was a gorgeous sunset or storm, we'd always go to the highest point of town, by the police station, and park to the side of the road on top of the hill. And just sit. It reminded me of those times. I saw a picture of a sunset over a cornfield and one from a woodline, and I thought of the countless times I'd witnessed sunsets just like them while out for a bike ride. I love sunsets over the lake, but I sure do miss sunsets over cornfields and woodlines. They bring back so many amazing memories.

That said, tonight has been filled with more memories, new and old. I have been blessed beyond measure with my experiences, all the while living in two small towns.. and I wouldn't change those experiences. Those marina lights in the dark made my day a little brighter, and brought back some great memories. It makes me all the more eager to visit my hometown this weekend for a family reunion.

Psalms

Lately I have been spending a lot of time with King David and my Jesus. In other words, I'm working my way through reading the Psalms. I have found some extremely fascinating and uplifting things. On a notecard, I have been keeping track of some of the themes I have noticed so far.

Here are just a few so far: Praising God - God's unfailing love - God's faithfulness - Standing in awe of God - Thanking God - God delivering us - God as our refuge and strength - Having an attitude of prayer - Crying out to God - Trusting God - God never being far away

What amazes me is David's attitude of prayer. From what I've read so far, He goes back and forth from pleading and crying out to God and praising Him. There's nothing in between.. He is always communicating in some way with his Creator. Sometimes I feel like we fail to spend time with God unless we're pleading and crying out to Him, because when everything is going alright we're ok. But what if everyone was to have this attitude of prayer? It makes me think of 1 Thessalonians 5:7, which says "pray without ceasing." In high school, my youth pastor described this as not praying 24/7, just having the attitude of prayer. You don't have to pray all day. It's more like keeping God close in your thoughts, actions, etc. Your prayers don't have to be long and super deep... a "God help me to love these people in my check out line that are driving me crazy" is sufficient, because you're relying on God and calling on Him. I think of it as simply being in close contact with Him throughout the day. What you think about colors your attitude, thoughts, actions, etc., so why not let what you're thinking about be something good.. like your Jesus? He longs for that. He wants us to focus on Him, and spend time with Him. He's a very jealous God, and yet showers us with blessings. David praised Him as the most amazing thing, which He really is. But what if we were to do that in our lives, just like David did?   I wonder how much we would grow, and how strong our relationship with Him would be.

Here's what I think would happen:

"The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand" -Psalm 37:23-24

"The Lord helps [the righteous] and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him" -Psalm 37:40 (emphasis personally added)

The last part of verse forty sticks out to me. It just seems to bring to my attention that taking refuge in Him, is what God wants us to do. And when we do, we get showered in blessings.  Also, Isaiah 26:3 comes to mind, which says; "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." David was at peace, because His mind was stayed on God and he trusted Him. Can we say the same for ourselves?

I think having a mind stayed on Jesus and an attitude of prayer go hand in hand. What do you think?