A child of God educating other children.

For the longest time now my heart has been longing to grow the Fruit of the Spirit. I remember walking around our yard in the spring to the 5 apple trees on our property and pruning the branches that were dead, and again this fall taking off an apple if two were growing on the same bunch. I had John 15:4-5 (or of what I could remember of it) playing in my head over and over picturing God walking around me and pruning off the things in my life that are dead and not letting me thrive, and making room for the fruit he wants me to have in my life.

Now I started thinking about this in the spring, and am sad to say I really haven't dedicated time to really devote myself to letting God develop fruit in my life. I feel like I have been in a stalemate and not really meaning to, but I know that if I really really wanted it, I'd be able to tell. Right?

I got out my devotional about the Fruit of the Spirit and have started reading it. Already I have felt a sense of peace that God is happy with me noticing a dryness and now being thirsty to go all out wanting to get deep with him. I am really excited to see what God has in plan for me, and watch him prune me like I did with the apple trees in mine and Tim's yard.

Posted in: Fruit of the Spirit on Sunday, October 05, 2008 at at 8:44 PM 1 comments    

Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

John 15:4-5
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is served from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

James 1:2-4
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

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I want to thank everyone for commenting back and emailing me about the last post I did. This afternoon on the bus was rough, and it was nice to come home to encouragement.

I have quite a bit to say about the Fruit of the Spirit and my thoughts on my spiritual life right now, but on Word it's about 2 pages long, so I figured I'd break it up. Today you get the verses.

I absolutely love Galatians 5:22-23. I did a study on these and am constantly wondering if people can see them in my life. It is late though and I have an early morning. I'll post more another day.

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at at 7:37 PM 2 comments    

Where have they gone?

I am constantly surprised by the lack of morals I see around me, especially working in the public school system. We're supposed to correct student's language if we hear something not appropriate. But then when I go into the staff lounge I hear bad language in there! How does someone teach another morals if they do not follow it for themself? What is even more frustrating is that I am slowly learning of the people who go to our church and they are the ones with the foul language. I would love to hear more pastors stand up and be convicting of the ways we live our lives. I know I'm not perfect and there are things I need to work on, so bring it on. Sometimes we need a wake up call and someone to point things out before we realize that we have been in a rut and need to get out.

My biggest shock was last week with the pre-schoolers on the bus. There are 3 brothers whose dad lets them watch the Chucky movie. I've never seen it, I believe it came out when I was in elementary school, and there was no way I was allowed to watch it. The boys are constantly talking about that movie and told me that they learned how to flip someone off because of that movie. So we talked about how that is not good to do, and at least they understood that.

Why does it seem that morals have really declined? More and more things are becomming acceptable and it makes me scared and sick. Is it just not important anymore or is less and less getting passed down in families from generation to generation. I think my family has done a good job at passing down good morals and I am proud of that. Tim and I have struggled with teaching morals in our own church with people I guess not even thinking about things. I don't know if it's 'cause I grew up in the South and we both grew up in conservative homes or what.

Tim and I have talked about this a few times since school started up this Fall. Do we not have kids for fear that they will be influenced by the lack of morals around us? Or do we have kids and raise them up as followers of Christ and pray that God will use them to influence those around them?

Posted in: morals on Monday, September 29, 2008 at at 10:21 AM 3 comments    

This week is Spirit Week at the high school. Today was jersey/hat day. I was nervous walking in wearing my Schmoyer jersey wondering if I got the right day. I was glad to see people wearing jerseys, but the first few people I saw were dressed in jerseys that went along with the school colors. When I got to the classroom I help in the other teachers in there were in jerseys that didn't go along with the school, so that made me feel better.

Tomorrow is camo day. I have some actual camo pants that my Mom got me in high school for my drama class when we were doing lip syncing. The group I was in did a song by the Spice Girls and I was Scary Spice. That's a whole other story, but I had a lot of fun with it! Anyways, before I left the school today I made sure I took a good look at the poster on the wall to make sure that I'll be wearing camo on the correct day 'cause that would totally embarass me if I wore it on the wrong day.

Update on my calorie counting. Tomorrow is my one week personal weigh in. When I started...okay I'm not gonna share my actual weight...sorry (I almost did!). But I weighed myself this morning and right now I'm 6lbs lighter than I was Tuesday evening last week. That's a lot of pounds to loose in one week, so I think this is just a huge kickstart with my body trying to get use to less food and more activity. I feel a whole lot better. Now I just need to get more sleep. I've been hooked on Free Cell and Solitaire lately.

Self control has been huge for me this week. We have brownies sitting on our counter right now from Tim going to small group tonight. They look great, but I haven't touched it, just admired. I've worked out my calories to have one tomorrow, if I don't want popcorn or icecream instead. One stinkin' 2x2 brownie piece is over 200 calories! I could actually have popcorn and icecream instead of one brownie. Hmmm. Depends on how much I want chocolate. I found my self control bracelet. I have a couple Fruits of the Spirit bracelets, and I think it's time to wear my self control. I almost ate a bite of cake in the teacher's lounge today after school with it sitting for whoever to take and no one in the room. Luckily I didn't have time before getting on the bus to leave.

Posted in: school, self control on Monday, September 22, 2008 at at 8:29 PM 1 comments    

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is day 3 of counting calories. Today was my splurge day. I actually ate 1600 calories, and burned 600 exercising. The worst of these 3 days, but it was the one time for Tim and I to go out to eat. Who knew nachos were so bad for you! :) We ate at Bennigans and split a 12oz steak and the Southwestern Sampler. It actually kinda made me sick after watching very carefully what I've been eating for just a couple days. I'm glad we ate then went exercising 'cause I feel a lot better now. Tim was a good sport to do the cardio of my workout with me. Okay, he actually fussed a LOT! But, he still did it with me.

I've completed 3 weeks working at the high school. It's still going well. Some days are better than others and it all depends on the student's moods. We have to feel out how they're doing each day and some each hour to know how to deal with some of them. Please keep these kids in your prayers. I pray for them every day. I didn't exactly enjoy high school, and to be on this side watching kids go through it is interesting, especially the ones that don't know Christ.

Pray for me. My biggest thing for the year is to stay committed and on track with teaching 2nd grade Sunday school, 9th grade confirmation, and doing the 40 Days of Purpose small group. Also pray that this weekend wont be tempting being home and around food all day. It's been easy at school 'cause I just don't take much food, and I'm forced to follow my meal plan that way.

Posted in: exercise, prayer, work on Friday, September 19, 2008 at at 7:56 PM 0 comments    

Today was my first attempt ever to count calories. I'm using www.healthylivingonline.com. It has most foods in it's system so you choose what you ate or what you will eat and it'll calculate pretty much everything for you. Today I entered things as I ate to see how many calories I had left. While at school I was estimating what I thought I ate and ended up eating my alotted 1200 calories of the day in only breakfast and lunch. Then when I got home I noticed I messed up on my cereal this morning, and ended up being 500 calories off, giving me calories to use for dinner and a snack of popcorn after small group!

I already went through and entered in what I'll eat tomorrow, and I have it worked out to eat a snack after each meal, so I'll get to eat 6 times a day, which is ideal. I'm kinda excited to see how I follow this, and really not looking forward to it at the same time. I'm wanting to quickly finish this so I can go to sleep and put off eating for the night 'cause I'm still hungry.

My Dad has been a huge encouragement with me wanting to be healthy. He is able to limit himself and have amazing self control. Right now, I am really struggling with that. Tim can tell you, I was so whiny about being hungry! :)

This website also sets up a workout schedule for you of what different activities and days you choose. That looks like it should work really well. I'm mainly just nervous about the food part because I really like to eat!

Posted in: health on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at at 8:47 PM 2 comments    

I am so glad that the hurricane is over and to know that Jon is okay, and so is my friend Brianne. Brianne stuck around because her dad needed to help out with things, so she took cover with her family, not wanting to evacuate without her dad.

And last night Jon had up his live video stream online. There wasn't a whole lot to see, so Jon made it entertaining with using a chatroom and sound. Tim and I went to the high school football game yesterday, well at least the first half, then came home 'cause I was cold, and we're not too wild about football. So right when we got home we got online with Jon and stayed on until 12:30pm when his electricity went out.

Dad has been keeping me updated today by email on Jon, which is really nice. Jon should be getting to my parents before midnight tonight. That is comforting to know, and surprising he found a way out. Last I heard from Brianne was at 7am this morning letting me know they were still getting bad weather. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for her.

I didn't get to sleep until about 1am this morning and still couldn't get my mind off of the storm. I had to wake up early to make it to my massage appointment I set. (That was such a nice time!) I'm glad I had it this morning to get me off of the computer to stop watching all the disaster photage. Then from 3pm-9pm I hung out with 2 of my small group girls going to the annual Grape Stomp festival. And when I got home, I was back online watching disaster photage.

I am exhausted and heading off to bed. We're going to the 8:30 service tomorrow, then I'm teaching one of the four 2nd grade Sunday school classes.

Posted in: family, friends, Hurricane Ike, ministry on Saturday, September 13, 2008 at at 7:51 PM 0 comments    

Sunday was the kick-off for our church's 40 Days of Purpose revisited. This will be my first time to go through 40 days of purpose. The sermon Sunday really got me excited about this. On Tuesdays Tim and I will be leading a small group at our house to do an in depth study of 40 days of purpose. There are lots of small groups in our church going on probably every night of the week all over town for everyone to get plugged in.

Pastor John's sermon Sunday really touched on something I was talking to God about a few weeks ago. When Tim and I signed up to lead a small group for 40 days of purpose I was willing, but kind of frustrated because this means another Bible study that I am suppose to lead/help lead. Kind of a funny thing to get frustrated with right? Here's my schedule starting full blown next week: Sunday morning - teach 2nd grade Sunday School. Sunday evening - help out with Senior high youth group, Tuesday evening - co-teach 40 days of Purpose adult small group, Wednesday evening - co-teach The Journey (Confirmation with my awesome 9th grade girls).

Looking at and thinking about that schedule kind of overwhelms me, and a few weeks ago when I was starting to get stressed over that schedule God kind of knocked me in the head and straightened me out. I was thinking that I was taking on way too much and I wouldn't have time for other things that I want to do, giving time to myself. Then all of a sudden God told me, "What are you doing? You are not here for yourself, I put you here, and you are here for me. To serve and to teach others about me." What a wake up call!

I was really wanting to go to an adult Sunday School class to get fed, but when I asked Tim if I could bow out of helping with the junior high I really felt a passion to help teach a children's class. And on Sunday during service John spoke a little on Hebrews 5:12, "You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food." I know that now in my walk with Christ that I learn so much more when I spend the time with God preparing to teach others what He teaches me. I was just wanting to be lazy.

And then I started to stress about finding a job the closer we got to going to Virginia for Glory's wedding because I wanted something to start right when I got back. And God delivered! I started at the high school the day we got back. I was kind of bummed that I'm only working 30 hours, not 40 a week, but again...this is not my life, it's God's. Working 30 versus 40 is great for my ministry schedule. This leaves me not only with energy when I get home to still take care of the house, but it is a great schedule for youth group, and giving me energy to spend preparing Bible study lessons.

Posted in: ministry on Monday, September 08, 2008 at at 6:56 PM 1 comments    

I am really enjoying my work schedule. I go in at 10am and am done at 4:30pm. It's not many hours, but it will be good for me not to work a full time job. For instance...Friday I was tired during the day, but when I got home I was in the mood to clean. That is amazing all in it's self. So this weekend I spent quite a few hours cleaning the house. I got all 3 of our bathrooms clean and disinfected. And I got a new shower curtain and window curtain for our basement bathroom. That bathroom kind of becomes neglected because it is used the least amount of time, and seen the least by company. But, when we have company spend the night that is the main bathroom they use. After spending the week in Virginia with Tim's family I got motivated to get in the basement bathroom and make it nicer. I want to apologize to everyone who has had to use that bathroom while here and us not taking more pride in it. Come again and it'll be much better!

I also vacuumed and dusted the whole basement, dusted and vacuumed the main floor and cleaned the kitchen really nice! Now tomorrow hopefully I'll still have this cleaning energy and tackle our bedroom. We've been good at keeping our kitchen clean a couple weeks in a row now which has been so nice! Now we need to learn how to do that with our bedroom.

Posted in: marriage on Sunday, September 07, 2008 at at 9:12 PM 0 comments    

My schedule is really different now for school, but I still like it. Now all day I am in one classroom, which means no aquaculture class, and I have one student I give most of my attention to in the last 2 classes of the day.

I went in to the district office this morning and also got my lunch break figured out for the day. I will start at 10am each day and be done at 4:30. I am at the high school from 10-2:30 with an unpaid half hour lunch, which apparently is common? And then from 2:30-4:30 is my bus route.

I'm kinda bummed that I'm not in aqua culture 'cause I don't get a class with 2 really neat kids, but I do get to ride the bus with them which is nice. I was also kinda worried about the kid who was the attention of the punks the day before in class. I hope things went well and there wont be anymore problems. When I showed up this morning and was told about my new schedule it's because the other para that is in the class is working specifically with some of the students in there, so I was moved to a class without a para. They also told me that the teacher was impressed with me handling the boys yesterday and that he wanted me to stay instead, but that couldn't happen. I'll be praying for that class.

Posted in: work on Thursday, September 04, 2008 at at 4:46 PM 0 comments    

I started my first day of school today. I think this is the first time I've actually started at the beginning of the school year. Granted, today was actually the 2nd day of school, but that's close enough.

The Wedding was beautiful. Glory was gorgeous. And we had a wonderful time with Tim's side of the family. It was so much fun to get to play with Ruby, Noah and Ti. We had such a busy summer we didn't see our niece and nephews much. Hopefully within the next week I'll have the wedding pictures on my computer to post a few.

I was so incredibly nervous to start work today. The week after Tim and I moved to Minnesota I got a call from the high school principal about a para position they had open, so I went and tried it for 2 days, and it was a total wrong fit for me. After that I didn't even choose to sub at the high school. I prayed and prayed and prayed about today. I really didn't want to try something out again that wouldn't work and be on the look for another job. And to my surprise I had a great day today!

I got to the school an hour early since I missed all the meetings before school since we were in Virginia. I had some paper work to fill out then needed to get my schedule and find out what I'd be doing. The principal briefly spoke to me, just long enough to bring me down to my special ed supervisor, who surprisingly is the special ed teacher that I loved working with when I subbed at one of the elementary schools last year. That completely started my day of on the right foot being so excited that I get to work with Paula! And...I am helping out in the ed support classes, which was my preference. I didn't want to go class to class following students around. The last class of the day I am in an elective class to help out students though. That was kind of interesting. I had to get on to some guys in the class that were teasing another student, which I do not tolerate at all. So in the middle of the class watching a video I called the guys out and fixed the problem. Come to find out, it's some of the guys on the wrestling team. I'll have to ask Tim if I can borrow his wrestling shirt to wear on Friday so we can hopefully get to know each other and they'll know I'm watching them and have an in with the coaches. :)

To end my days every day I have a 2 hour bus route, which is only 1 hour this week until the preschool starts up. I was nervous about that too 'cause I was thinking I'd be on a regular bus helping students out, but luckily, it's only for students with special needs, and they are so sweet! I am very glad I don't have any punks to deal with.

I am very pleased with the position I have. Tomorrow I go in for more paper work, and hopefully try to convince them that I need a lunch break in my 6 hour day. (Remind me, and I'll explain that later.) I completely failed at trusting God to put me in a good position that He knows I will be good at. But I am very thankful that He was faithful and did.

I would love to hear how God is working in y'alls lives right now!

Posted in: family, wedding, work on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 at at 3:14 PM 0 comments    

Yesterday Tim and I came out to meet up with the rest of the family. We had a birthday party for our sister Grace and niece Ruby out at a state park. We had presents, cake and fun on the sand. Tim's grandparents were checking into the hotel a little after coming back from the park. Then everyone went out for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. After dinner Tim and I got to go to Glory and soon the be Michael's home. They have such a cute house, and it's amazing to see the before pictures. They totally remodeled the house! We had a great time hanging out over there for a while sharing stories and talking about Dave Ramsey. Then we ended the night playing Apples to Apples with the rest of Tim's siblings.

Today was pretty nice and relaxing. The morning was slow, then Tim and I went to Lynchburg for lunch to eat at Chick-fil-a and to go to Lifeway Christian bookstore. After lunch we went to the YMCA with Dan, Maggie, Ruby and Titus to go swimming, and got back in time to shower and change for the groom's dinner we had up on a mountain tonight! We had a wonderful time meeting Michael's side of the family and taking lots of pictures!

Posted in: family on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at at 6:58 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I got to Virginia beach last night in time for dinner. We're having a great time hanging out with Kym and Jason and their two kids. Today for lunch they took us out to a Japanese restaurant where they cook right in front of you at the table. That's always fun, and it was Tim's first experience of that. Then we went to their store, Mister Jewelry and Jason cleaned my wedding band and engagement ring. I didn't realize how much it needed it until I saw it finished. Wow it looks great! We have a little more time here before we leave in the morning to meet up with Tim's side of the family and start all the wedding festivities. It's fun to hear all kinds of stories of Tim's family while he was growing up.

Posted in: family, friends, vacation on Thursday, August 28, 2008 at at 3:06 PM 0 comments    

I just accepted a job today that starts the morning we get back from Virginia. Actually, if we weren't going out of town I would have a couple meetings to go to and start a day early. I am nervous about this, so it doesn't help to know that I am missing out of some information that would help me with my position, so I would really appreciate a lot of prayers!

I will be working at the high school as a special ed paraprofessional. This was actually my last choice of what I wanted to do in the school district, but I can already hear God telling me He can teach me many things (probably including patience) and that I will be a good fit for this as long as I let God do all the work through me. I will be working about 6 1/2 hours a day. My day will start at 10am on a regular morning and end around 4:30 after I help on the bus route.

Tim and I are fixin' to get on the road to go to David and Adrienne's. Then in the morning we fly out to VA with the other Schmoyers in MN, then Tim and I are driving to Virginia Beach, then Friday we'll meet back up with Tim's side of the family for all the wedding festivities. Then Tuesday we'll fly home and I'll start work Wednesday morning.

Along with praying for my willingness to listen and be stretched with this job and the ability to do what is needed, also pray that I wont let it stress me out during vacation so I can relax and enjoy everything.

I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging if any while we're gone. I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about when we get back though! You can follow me on Twitter while we're gone though and see what we're doing throughout each day.

Posted in: family, wedding, work on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at at 4:29 PM 2 comments    

I have a way distant cousin who is competing in the Olympics for Women's Mountain Bike Cross Country. The race was postponed due to rain, so she should be racing Saturday 23rd at 10am. Which Central time is at 9pm Friday 22nd. Gould will be in the 1st line up. Don't miss it!

When I say way distant I mean it. We're related through my great great great great great grandparents. If you're in the More clan you have a number that we all can keep in touch with and know how we're related. Georgia's number is 32611341 and mine is 8572742.

Tim has been recording every single Olympic event, and I'm really looking forward to watching a cousin compete.

Georgia has also been blogging while she's over in Beijing. It's pretty fun to read what all she is doing each day. Check out her blog.

Posted in: Georgia Gould, Olympics on Friday, August 22, 2008 at at 2:58 PM 0 comments    

If I haven't jogged or biked in a day I feel so lazy! I'm not sure if it's possible, or if it's even happened, but I think I might be addicted to working out, or maybe just the feeling of being healthy. I highly doubt that I'm addicted to working out because it feels like such a chore to do, but then I love how I feel afterwards. Kinda weird. I worked out Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I skipped it Monday because I cleaned the house all day long and still felt like I got a work out. And today I haven't worked out because it's been super windy outside all day and now it's dark. My knees don't enjoy jogging anymore, so I'd rather bike, but it's killer to bike when it's windy. If it's still windy in the morning I'll have to jog instead 'cause we have company coming to stay that will be here a little after lunch. Then hopefully I'll get myself up early Saturday before our training too.

Here's a few tools I use for working out:

www.mapmyrun.com David, my brother-in-law showed me this, which I really like to use. Mainly just to keep track of what days I work out. But it'll calculate your calories if you put in your miles and time when you work out.

The Biggest Loser Fitness Plan - this link and exercises are different than the ones in the book I'm using, but I'm sure you could put all these together into a good circuit.

Crunch Fat Burning Pilates, Crunch Burn and Firm Pilates and Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates:
These three videos I really enjoy. They give you a challenge, but not one of those where you quit half way through. My favorite is the Fat Burning Pilates. Right after doing the 45 minute workout I feel great. When you do it for the very first time be ready to feel a bit of soreness 'cause it gives you a great workout! What sold me on all three of these videos is the trainer, Ellen Barrett. She is a nice calm trainer who isn't one of the bubbly annoying ones I'm use to seeing that you get frustrated with how much fun and excitement their having when you feel like you're dying doing the same thing.

Posted in: Ellen Barrett, exercise, mapmyrun, The Biggest Loser on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at at 7:15 PM 2 comments    

Yesterday our neighborhood through a cook-out/kid's bike parade thing for all of us neighbors to meet each other. I am so glad they did this because ever since we moved here I've thought it'd be fun to do something like that, and I didn't have to plan it! :)

Tim and I didn't know until about an hour before it started that we'd be able to, so we ate dinner before heading over, and just spent our time meeting everyone we live around.

We already know 4 families in our church that are right in our neighborhood, but this was a great opportunity to see everyone we constantly pass by when we're out for a walk or a jog. Most of the families are pretty young too. There were probably 4 that are older. Tim and I are probably the youngest in our neighborhood, but a lot of these people are still having babies, so they're close enough to our age.

I love meeting new people, but I was actually really nervous to go to the get-together. Tim actually did most of the talking and I just tagged along behind him. We had a great time, hopefully this will open the door of a lot more get-togethers. I haven't talked to Tim, but I'd love to do a sledding day at our house and invite the neighbors over this winter.

Posted in: marriage, neighborhood on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at at 2:50 PM 1 comments    

Tonight during Soul Fuel for our high school students my attention was brought to a small quirk/plus with Tim being a youth pastor. I bought an exercise ball a while ago and it has always stayed in our living room. Tonight I was wondering if we had a nice house like my parents, or most people their age, their living room would be too nice to always keep the exercise ball in there. But at our house it serves as a favorite chair to the youth when they're at our house! I just thought that was funny and had to share. Plus I think if I had to move it out of the room when I wasn't using it, I probably wouldn't use it. Just yesterday while doing a puzzle I used the ball to roll around to whatever side of the table I was at. It's pretty much more of a chair or toy than anything else, but at least when using it for that I get better exercise than just plopping down on the couch (which I like to do too!)

Posted in: exercise, ministry on Monday, August 18, 2008 at at 8:47 PM 0 comments    

Most, Unbelievable, Ultimate, Urban, Camping, Experience.

The name of MUUUCE really lived up to it's name this year for me. Last year was great being our first time to do a weekend trip with the jr. high at our church, but this year was so much more amazing. God really used the weekend for me to get to know students better, and I am so thankful that God made opportunities for that.

It all started on the bus ride down to the cities less than 5 minutes on the road. I noticed one girl on the trip who I saw every Wednesday night at The Journey but never talked to because of the girls she hangs around, and I just don't know how to relate to them. My mistake, I assumed she was just like them. I am glad to say that I am wrong. She was sitting on the bus alone not talking to anyone, so I asked if I could sit with her, and we started talking about all sorts of things! I was blown away! She didn't really know anyone on the trip, knew who a couple of the other students were, but didn't know them more than a familiar face.

When we got to Faith Covenant and were hanging out at the inflatables I made sure this girl was hanging out with people. I am very impressed with the girls in my small group that went for including someone new into their circle of friends and making her feel welcome.

That evening at Waterpark of America I got to know another girl in our church better, and her friend. I guess I took a while changing into my swimsuit because I couldn't find anyone afterwards. I walked around the waterpark for a little bit looking for anyone, and finally found 2 of our youth girls. I spent the whole evening hanging out with them doing all the slides they wanted to do. Such fun girls!

On Friday we went to Valley Fair. Tim and I pulled together 2 groups of friends to walk around with. We had the biggest combined group from our church walking around. I was thrilled to see the two different friendship circles mesh really well together. It took about one ride until everyone started talking and intermingling. Praise Jesus! Then at lunch we had 3 boys who are brand new coming into the youth group hang out with us. One of them loved all the rides, and the other two wouldn't go on any. Once again the girls totally amazed me and were willing to do a repeat ride that we were able to talk to boys into going on, and then did another easy ride for them.

I am go thankful that God had me go on the weekend trip with the junior highers. I forget how much I love that age and how fun and goofy they are. They're really gullible too! Okay, one more story...

Friday night at the Twins game (Twins won!) we just got in the doors and were waiting for everyone else to gather up so we could find seats together, there was a guy from the host church with us that told some of the boys they had to read all the fine print on the back of their ticket before going in. They weren't really believing that, but wondering if it was true, until I added that they would have to sign something when they sit down saying that they read all of it. Immediately the boys bow their head and start reading the fine print! I watched for a couple seconds then stopped them laughing hysterically letting them know we were joking. They were good for many laughs throughout the weekend and so much fun to hang out with and get to know!

Posted in: junior high, ministry, muuuce, twins, valley fair on Sunday, August 17, 2008 at at 10:04 PM 1 comments    

Tim and I had a short time in the afternoon to go down to Saint Cloud and do a little bit of shopping between his conference call at noon and church meeting at 5:30. We needed a nice outfit for him for Glory's wedding, and I needed to buy Glory a fun gift! :) We had a little bit of time before we needed to be back in time for Tim's meeting so we stopped by Verizon and checked out their phones. The battery life on my old phone has been poor for a while, in fact in May we stopped in and they gave us a brand new battery for it, which the last few days has been only lasting me about 5 hours before giving the high pitch beep that it's dying.

We didn't have a lot of time in Verizon to decide what we wanted to do, and there were a lot of people shopping around. So we went ahead and decided which phone I wanted depending on price. We were up for our new every 2 which gave us $50 off of the phone, and this phone also had a $50 mail-in-rebate, so when I get reimbursed it'll cost me a total of $3 for the tax. Pretty nice! Pray that it wont get lost in the mail, 'cause it'll come out of my blow money.

I think we were pretty easy customers for the lady that worked with us since we already knew what we wanted. But we were also not budging when she tried to sell us all the different packages for the phone. It was simple, we don't have the money.

Tim and I have been playing around with it. I can take video which is a first for me, and the camera on it is nicer. Tomorrow we leave for a weekend with our jr. highers for lots of fun down in the cities. I'll probably be taking lots of pictures and video just for fun! :)

Posted in: saint cloud, shopping, verizon on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at at 7:22 PM 1 comments