I LOVE CAMP!!! :)

i got back from camp today!! actually, technically, i didn't really "get back", because my family and i are staying at the cottage for the next week (thanks grandma barb and grandpa charlie!!). camp was awesome as always!! jodi's messages were awesome at really showed me a totally new perspective on a lot of things. kelsey did a exceptional job on the morning messages, i loved the illustrations. i'm gonna post more about what i learned and pictures later on, i just wanted to say that i got back, and i had an awesome time!! :) ttyl!! :)

oh, and another thing that i'm really excited about, next year, i'll be too old to go to Girl's Camp, so i really want to be a SIT (staff in training). i think it would be awesome! i love camp so much, and it would be so much fun to work there!! so, hopefully i'll be able to go to that, it'll be around 4 weeks!! :) yeay!!

CAMP!!!

WE'RE GOING TO CAMP TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WWWWAAAAAAHHHOOOOOO!!! just in case you couldn't tell, i'm excited!! :) i hope everyone who goes will learn a lot about themselves, God and others (and have lots of fun!!)!!!!!! so, also, i won't be posting for a while, but when i come back, hopefully i'll have a lot of stories to tell!!! :) see you all later!! :) oh, and if you all could pray for everyone who's going to be at camp this year, that God would speak to them in a new and exciting way, and that we'd learn a lot, that would be awesome (and also for safety, and anything else you feel like you can pray for us!!)!! thanks so much!! see ya later alligator!! :)

wetness...

ashlee and i were able to get together with molly and emily at the park near our house for a little while today!! it was fun, even though we only got to kick a ball around for about 30 min. it was great to see them again! when we got there, it was only spitting, but when we left it was pouring. and ashlee, ngiap and i had to walk home...that's o.k! :)

on a sorta different note (even though it's still about soccer), i went to the first practice for lca yesterday!! :) yeay!! it was a lot of fun! i felt kinda weird because i was the only person who didn't know everyone else...but everyone was really nice and made me feel accepted!! :) the captains, holly and kelsey, were really nice, and so was beth. i bet it's gonna be a great season!! :)

5 lessons

i got this in an e-mail from meghan (thanks, meghan!!), and thought i'd pass it on to all of you!! :)

Five (5) lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?
I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2 - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance, and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached.. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along, and because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always Remember Those Who Serve

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson - The Obstacle in our Path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving when it Counts

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away"? Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Remember Most Importantly.....

"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching."

ashlee's new icon...

i made it!! :)

quote

"If you truly love someone, you're going to be pure because true love comes from God, and God tells us to remain pure." -Jon Foreman

beach...this time plum island...

yesterday, i had the pleasure of babysitting (sorta) noah and lucas and after that, my family and i went with the torres' to plum island in newberryport. it is a beautiful beach (i think if i ever do that photo shoot, i'd want to do it there!)!! i had a great time, and got a lot of good pictures!! :) here are some of them (notice the 'some' part...i have a lot more...i took around 200 i think...)--i love this picture-

rush of fools

they're a really good Christian band. i think they said that they're all youth pastors. their songs are worship songs, and they're all awesome!! if you have an iPod, i would suggest getting the whole cd, it's awesome!! :) (oh, their website is www.rushoffools.com)

famine shirt

i was thinking the last time we did the famine that we should make a shirt for everyone who did it...so i came up with a design!! :) what do y'all think?? (btw, the left picture is the front, and the right one is the back)

it's raining...

it's raining...it's pouring...we're having our weird new england weather...random hard rain storms...

vbs--day 5 (God is in Charge!)

picture for day #5! everyone at snacks

friday was the last day of vbs!! the Bible story was about Naman who got leprosy. with the preschoolers, we played dot sticker tag!! it was really cute and a lot of fun!! :) i think all the kids enjoyed playing it! basically, if you don't know how to play, you run around with dot stickers and "tag" people by sticking the stickers on them. it was a lot of fun!! somehow, with all three groups, everyone ended up chasing me at the end of the game...hmmm...maybe jaina had something to do with that... :) anyways, it was a lot of fun, and i had an awesome time for the whole week, and hopefully we showed the kids a little bit of Jesus!! :) thanks, jaina, for helping me, you were awesome!! :)

photoshoot...

i was thinking...if i ever get a "real" (lol!) camera, i think i'm gonna steal some of my friends (from church/youth group and the hs group) and go to the beach for a "photoshoot."...that would be a lot of fun!! :)

beach pictures...

so, like i was saying yesterday, we went to the beach again!! my dad was working at hampton beach, so we decided to go visit him. except the only problem with that was when we were on the highway, we passed him going the other way. :/ so, we decided to just hang out at the beach for a while!! it was a lot of fun!! we wrote 'Jesus Loves You!' really big in the sand (you'll see pictures further on in this post) and it was pretty cool to see people's reactions (it was still there when we left). a couple people read it out loud which was cool!! and a bunch of people walked right through it....but a lot of people walked around it instead of walking through it!! one guy walked through it and then turned around and read it!! it was really cool (naomi also wrote "Jesus loves you" in french in the sand)!! o.k., i'm done talking, now for pictures!! (i got a bunch of wave pictures, but i'm not going to post them unless someone wants to see them)

1st; here are 2 pictures, the first one is the original, and i edited the second one. what did i do??
1st picture-2nd picture-o.k., here are the other pictures (i took 143+, but i'm not gonna bore you with all of them! ;) )

vbs--day 4 (God is Awesome!)

picture for day #4! the problem bubbles (dum dum duuuuuum)

today's Bible story was when Jesus died and rose from the dead! so, of course, we had to play a game with something that rose into the air. so, we played with balloons and bubbles!! it was an o.k. day, nothing spectacular happened, except that when i got to the church brianna told me jaina wasn't going to be there. :P so i had to do games by myself. it wasn't too bad, i guess... but dumb me, i totally forgot to take the seals off the bubbles, so there i was sitting on the picnic table, trying to get 24 containers of bubbles open and read for use in 10 minutes at max. i got past the clear seal that keeps the cover on, but when i got to the silver seal that's over the actual top of the container, i ran into a little bit of trouble. you'd think it would just peal off, right?! wrong!! they were so annoying!! it was like they were stuck to the container with super glue!! they would not just simply peel off, like they're supposed to (like anything could be made simple for me...i have a tendency to complicate things...). so, what i finally ended up doing (i think i had 2 or 3 done by the time the first group of kids came. :P) was i used my mom's scissors and cut off the seals, and when the kids came, i sent their crew leader and ryan to work cutting off all the other seals while we played with balloons. (thanks so much mr. b and ryan!!) (oh and btw, before all this, mr. scott and mr. dan helped me blow up 15 balloons, because i can not blow up balloons. ...but then i figured out that i can... thanks for all your help, though!!) so, we played "try to keep the balloons up in the air" with all the crews and only had time to play with the bubbles with the first and last crews!! i was pretty tired after last night...lol! and tonight's the last night!! i'm happy and sad about that...

mrs. b's ms. l'engle

""It's a strange thing, how you can love somebody, how you can be all eaten up inside with needing them-- and they simply don't need you. That's all there is to it, and neither of you can do anything about it. And they'll be the same way with someone else, and someone else will be same way about you and it goes on and on--this desperate need-- and only once in a rare million do the same two people need each other." Justin to Katherine - I hope Ms. L'Engle will allow Katherine to refute this notion before the end of the book. I can choose to refute this notion in my own head and my own life.
(From The Small Rain, by Madeleine L'Engle, c 1945. This was her first published novel.)"

i saw that on mrs. b's blog and realized how true it is...

hampton beach!! yeay!!

we went to the beach again today!! here's one picture...i've gotta go, but i'll post more about it and more pictures later!! :) [i really like the picture!!]

vbs--day 3 (God is Strong!)

picture for day #3! some of the preschool kids making a tower!

yesterday's Bible Point was God Is Strong (the 1st one was God Is Real and the 2nd one was God Is With Us). The Bible story was the story of the Israelites and the walls of Jericho!! So, of course we played a game with knocking down stuff involved!! :) Preschoolers love to knock things down!! :) so, the game we played was, we had 2 piles of cardboard blocks, and split the kids up so that half of them were at one pile and the others were at the other pile. when we said "go", the kids had to take a block, hop to the middle, and put the blocks down and start building a wall!! that was really cute to watch them try to build a wall without it falling down!! :) then once they were done, we marched around it and blew our trumpets, and when I (or Jaina) said "GOD IS STRONG!!" they all got to knock over the wall!! It was really fun, and I think all the kids enjoyed it!! :)

vbs--day 2 (God is With Us!)

picture for day #2! Elias doing games with the older kids

last night's Bible story was when the Isrealites crossed the Jordan River. So, for games, we had a tarp, and pieces of brown and black paper taped on it for 'stones'. the kids had a box, and they walked across the 'river' with the box, gave the box to the person on the other side, and said "God is with us!!" and the other person replyed with "WAA-HOO!!". i had no idea how the kids would like it, but they seemed to find it fun! the first group was crazy, they wouldn't stay in one place, and were running around, so that game didn't last too long (they were all boys, btw...). so, we just kinda played "tag" (or run randomly around!) until it was time for them to go! the next group had about 10 kids in it, so someone was always somewhere they weren't supposed to be!! the game lasted a little while, and then we played simon says to get a little of their energy out!! lol!! the last group was the best!! there were 4 girls in the group, and they did the game perfectly!! they were really behaved, and they actually said "God is with us!!" and "Waa-Hoo!!" when they were supposed to (all the other kids just kinda went across and handed the box to the next kid! oh well!)!! we played the game for a while, and then we played duck duck goose. that was a lot of fun, too!! preschool games is so much fun!! :)

vbs--day 1 (God is Real!)

picture for day #1!! jaina and mr. happy tree (i think that's what we called him... :/)

last night, our church had the first night of vbs (vacation Bible school!)!! :D yeay!! it is a lot of fun!! jaina and i are doing preschool games!! (jaina is awesome!) it is a lot of fun (except for the fact that we had to move inside because it started to rain a little. hopefully today will be really nice!). all the kids are so cute! last night we played hide and seek and tug of war. i wasn't sure how either of those would go, but they both went great!! when we played hide and seek (or 'find the spies' as it was supposed to be called. the Bible story for yesterday was on Rahab and the Israelite spies.), the kids would come up to me, "i want to be a spy next!!" or "i want to be a soldier next!!" (the spies hid and the soldiers went to find them!). they were all really cute!! :) and for tug of war, they all were really cute, and determined!! O_O i didn't expect them to be pulling for as long as they did!! i wasn't sure about doing it, because when we moved inside, the room we did it in just had carpet over concrete, so it wouldn't be too good if anyone fell. but, thank God, no one god hurt!! it was a really fun night!! we get to go back again tonight for more insanity!! :) yeay!!

troy & rebekah

last saturday (7/7/07!!), troy and rebekah (from my church) got married!! they had a beautiful wedding!! i got a couple pictures from the ceremony...not too many, though. they had 3 people taking pictures, so i felt weird taking pictures during the ceremony!! :P i got a bunch during the reception, though!! they (troy and rebekah) are awesome! they are such good sports!! they let me take a couple pictures after almost everything was done, even though they had already had a lot of pictures taken! by the end of the day, rebekah was done with pictures!! :) well, anyways, it was a great day!! they're at the grand canyon for their honeymoon!! ashlee, erika, katelyn, kaeleigh, and emily sang "amazing grace" for the ceremony (and i played the piano!!). i was really nervous, the biggest thing i had played for was basically a youth conference with a bunch of people there, but i had a lot of other people playing guitars, too, so if i messed up, it wouldn't be a huge deal. but this time, it was just me (i'm all alone...), so if i messed up, it wouldn't be too great! kaeleigh was nervous, too, and i just told her not to worry, if she messed up, she had 4 other people to cover up for her, but if i messed up, it would mess everyone up (comforting, huh?!). she was just like, "oh..." lol!! so, i was praying a lot that day!! and, like always, God was working!! i had NO ouchies!! praise GOD!! it was totally ALL HIM!! no way i could have done it by myself!! the girls were wonderful (as always!), too! so, that's my God story for right now!! and now for pictures!!

from the rehearsalthe bride's maids were beautiful (too bad i couldn't get a better picture of them!)the ones from the ceremony weren't too great :P ...the cake!! (it was really yummy!)random pictures from when they were taking the group pictures...rebekah's niece is so cute!!cutting the cakemy "private photoshoot"!!rebekah and her parentsgood bye!! :)

the whole wedding was beautiful, and a lot of fun!! :) it would be a lot of fun to be a wedding photographer when i grow up (that is if anyone would hire me!! lol!)!!