Just Catch My Breath..

Whew! What a past couple of weeks! It has been more than a little busy around here, but in a wonderful way. :)
I'm a little out of the practice of blogging, and need major sleep, but I wanted to give an update and fill the three of you that read this in on what have been the latest tales in Arkadoo. Especially before craziness commences beginning tomorrow!

So since my last blog post, my life has turned into all things youth and moving. The Bean's (the wonderful family I'm living with for the summer) are moving to be dorm parents on campus this weekend so we have been having picnics on the floor, packing up, and selling all furniture. For the most part anyway.

I've only posted a few pictures, but for a complete album of youth happenings visit the Picassa Web Album Here or the Youth Website :)

[Me, Sarah, and Rachel]

[Youth Band Practice. This was a super joyful time!]

Besides moving, youth are basically all that is exciting in my life. It has been so amazzzing to get to know these kids better! Granted, they come with their drama and add worry to my life, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! God has certainly called me to this ministry for a reason. We've been planning out the next semester and it makes me so excited for everything that will happen in the future of the Park Hill Youth Ministry. I love planning, so the brainstorming has been really fun. Jason and I have definitely thrown out some crazy ideas lately :)

[Meet the middle school boys, and some extras. From left to right: Brannon, Sam, Nate (not a middle schooler, but a college leader), Charles, Quenton, John (not a middle schooler), Hayden, and Adam.]

For some reason the middle school boys love this awful red couch that lives in our youth room. They also really enjoy piling on top of Nate and whoever else is in their way. This was taken last night just before the couch broke. It will be interesting to see how long it continues to stay in our youth room. :) One of the guys, after examining the broken couch said, "anyone have some duct tape? I think I could hold it together with it." Priceless!

[This was taken Monday night as Laura, one of our high schoolers, and I tried to eat dinner downtown only to find Dino's closed early. So we decided to go to the Beehive. the Beehive is one of the thrift shops in town-sort of like Frisco Family Resale for you Frisconians. We had a grand time looking around, but especially enjoyed the Christmas section]

One of the things we do as a youth group is visit the nursing homes on Thursdays. Now, I think that most kids come just because we go swimming afterward, but they have formed friendships with some of the people in the nursing homes. It's been so fun to see ministries of God being extended to His people and to see our youth working as the Body. I took the kids by myself to the nursing homes today, which was crazy! The kids were wired and uber talkative. Which is quite fun, but overwhelming at times (especially for my introverted self :) ). The nursing home part of the day went well and was pretty fun. The kids have formed a special relationship with one lady, Mrs. Dolores (who the kids call the Quilt Lady, because she's always working on a quilt), and she was in a really funny, happy mood today. We had a good time laughing. The craziness commenced when plans began to form about a few of the kids finding the right boyfriend for me. They're apparently scheming to advertise all over campus for the right guy for me. Oi! If they carry the plan out, there will be a problem. :)

I floated the river this past weekend, which was an experience, to say the least! It was really low, so we couldn't just float at every point. And there were tons of Rednecks everywhere. In my opinion it made it more enjoyable, but Kim, Leasha, and Sean didn't particularly enjoy having more beer and smoke in the water than H2O. :) That was a joke. But Nate and I did have a pretty fun time laughing at their reactions to the drunk people. Apparently our sweet friends haven't been exposed as much to that as we have. Especially considering that Sean and Kim grew up in Africa. No Rednecks there. :)

Movies I've seen and thoughts lately:

*Jason, Sarah, Nate and I watched The Box with a few of our youth one night after youth. It was terrible. Don't see it. Ever. It just never got happy and was pretty creepy. Good idea and good cinematography, but not executed well. Bummer.
*A group of us went to see Inception. AMAZING! Kind of intense, but way worth it! You have to give it time to fully appreciate it.
*Nate and I took some youth to see Despicable Me, which is Hilarious! Great story, great quotes and overall fun for the whole family. :)
*A group of our college Sunday school class went to the A-Team. I really enjoyed it! Kept me captured the whole time.
*Top Gun, A Few Good Men, and Runaway Bride are a few flashbacks that we have enjoyed plenty! It seems to have been a Tom Cruise summer so far. Not complaining at all!
*Jason and Nate and I saw Salt this week. It was intense, but great!
*Lastly, because of all the action films lately, I declared last night a chick-flick night, and we watched Enchanted. Such a happy, lovely film! Nate and I both left in singy moods and smiling. Great relief from the drama of youth the hours preceding the movie :)

So, there's my life. Not super exciting, and I'm not sure how to sum up everything that goes on, but that's the attempt. :)

Things to look forward to in the next week:
-I'm about to head out with Emma to play around with my camera.
-My parents are coming this weekend!! It's quite time for family time and a vacation!
-Moving lodging locations about four times in the four nights...nut
-Going to the grandparents in East Texas this next week. Adventures to come. (Hint: Bees/Honey. Get excited because I sure am!)
-Going home after that, and to the Inter Milan/F.C. Dallas Game!
-Relaxation!

I hope everyone has a great, relaxing weekend!

~Brittany Nicole