the flowers will grow tomorrow.

summer's gone, now winter's on its way
  i will miss the days we had
the days we had
  i will miss the days we had
the days we had
oh, i'll miss the days we had

winter song; the head and the heart

while we are not quite at winter, my summer days are nearing an end. i am heading back to indiana this weekend. i will spend two weeks re-training for my resident assistant job in beckett east at iwu. the next week my "little" freshies will move in. i don't even know their names but am excited to learn their stories. after that we start school. [i felt kind of gross writing that.]

i have been looking forward to going back to school for about a month now. but before that month, i wasn't ready. i didn't want to go back. at. all. there were little hurts that made me want to scream, "i'm not coming back!" really loudly from alaska [loud enough for indiana to hear]. so needless to say, i would have been perfectly happy to have never gone back. if someone had said "bethany, i will give you a donut not to go back." i would have said, "heck yes give me that donut." and not not gone back. heck, i would have taken a half of a donut.

but this summer has been a growing period. growing isn't really the funnest thing you could do but probably it is worth it. i spent multiple mondays at my mentor julie's home. we read the Bible, laughed, cried, drank sweet tea and ya know...i loved it. i spent multiple monday nights at my home with a group of young ladies talking about life and learning how to say yes to God...and ya know i loved it. so pretty much mondays rocked my world. these were the sweetest moments of summer and i am going to miss them.

when you learn positive things you learn to let go of negative things. so that is why i am excited to go back to school. because the positive things give me strength. and that strength [which is really just my love for Jesus] gives me a new perspective.

of course i [probably] won't always have this great perspective. i will likely forget and listen to satan's little whispers. but it is progress not perfection. julie would always say "we are blossoming today. the flowers will grow tomorrow." so that is my new perspective. blossoms are a sign of growth and the beauty that is and is to come. but they don't just appear. it takes some time and love.

so, if someone offered me a donut to not go back to indiana...i would grab the donut and run. indiana, i'll see you soon.

 

- B

weekend retreat.

i have worked at the same youth group for around two years now. we go on a retreat each fall and winter. it involves a mini road trip and lots and lots of games [most of which i am no good at and that make my body ache for dayssss].

the trip started off well...i forgot my toothbrush. i may or may not have just stopped at meijer to buy a new one because i was too lazy to climb three flights of stairs to get to my room [judge all you want].

our driver, who just happens to be my boyfriend, wasn't too thrilled. i however, found the experience and my new toothbrush quite enjoyable.

the theme for the weekend was aroma [as in what kind of smell do you have?]. the thing that stuck with me the most was this analogy that they gave:

restaurants smell. each individual restaurant has an individual smell. when you go to restaurant you smell the smell. if you stay in the restaurant you become numb to the smell. when you leave the restaurant you take the smell with you. people smell your restaurant-ie [yes that is a word] smell.

sin. when we partake in sin. we feel bad. but when we bask and abide in that sin we become numb to it. we don't notice. we don't notice the stench we are letting off. but the people around us do. ouch. 

what a great realization i had. there are things i have been holding onto that don't necessarily mimic the actions of Christ. what kind of stench are you letting off? 

we always rent a 15-passenger van [party car].

beautiful facial expressions from Al, Dana, and Zach.

this would be dodge ball. notice the line of females not playing. 

i am one of those people.

since the olympics are happening, we were divided into teams with a team country.

ours was the best [also known as Jamaica].

each team made a banner. apparently people in Jamaica eat goats so obviously we drew a goat, a fork, and a knife. obviously.

one of the games was a couch relay thinger. each team had a couch...and we  had to CARRY it in the SNOW all around camp and do different challenges. every member of the team had to be touching part of the couch AT ALL TIMES [we unscrewed the pegs from the bottom and used that as part of the couch].

[also, i was obviously breaking the rules by taking this picture and not touching the couch. big deal.]

one of the challenges was to take pictures with our couch in the four corners of the gym.

there was a different type of picture in each corner.

this was duck faces and peace signs.

awkward family photo.

planking.

spelling "QHC" [Quaker Haven Camp].

Rusty and Tabitha Lumpkin were the speakers for the weekend.

They did a wonderful job and taught us lots of interesting facts about whale vomit.

[google it]

me and the boy. this is my camp/soccer mom look. ha

zach was upset because a snowplow was ahead of us.

we could barely see because of the snow it was stirring up.

i LOVED it.

even if we did have to go 1000000 times slower.

it took out a couple mailboxes too.

no trip to quaker haven is ever complete without a stop at dairy queen.

really.

i think the kids would cry if we didn't stop.

so we did.

i mean...i'm not complaining.

until next time,

B