Chicago

Okay, so I've been absolutely horrible at blogging this semester. And so many fun things have happened. My Grand Rapids visit seems like forever ago.

Chicago has been amazing! Such an awesome experience, and I'm so glad I'm here. I wouldn't change any of it. The Lord has taught me so much, I've built relationships during my time here with both old and new friends, I've had tons of new experiences, most amazing, some I could have gone without :), I've lived in a big city, love public transportation and have really experienced Chicago. I love it!

The past 4 weeks have been amazing. Like, possibly life changing. I don't know, thats a pretty bold statement, but they've been incredible! Too much fun for someone to handle. I've had really high highs and really low lows. But all of it is awesome. The lows have been the Lord breaking me, which makes me more and more desperate for him, which turns into high highs. Amazing.

Here's a quote from my fabulous sister, so true and so real:

"Whenever God is about to bring you to a higher platform of spiritual life, you always first get thrown down. He makes you hungry before He feeds you; He strips you before He clothes you; He makes nothing of you before He makes something of you."

I've experienced this in the last month, but it's really been absolutely incredible!

I wasn't going to catch up right now, but I guess I will. Knowing me, I probably won't come back to it. Basically, I had four awesome weekends all in a row. It was so much fun! (granted, it was during the four weeks that I was teaching my unit to my students, so it did get stressful at times and I worked really hard all week long, but it was so worth it!)

It started with an awesome visit by Elizabeth and Abby! I love love love those girls so much! They came for the weekend and we had a blast! We did lots of fun touristy things and also just spent time together catching up. It was fantastic!



The next weekend I flew to Virginia. I got to see my brother and sister in law and my two absolutely adorable nephews! I then went to Harrisonburg and was planning on seeing one of my summer staff girls from this summer. Turns out, I got to see FOUR of them!!! Three of them came and surprised me! It was the BEST surprise EVER!



It's the only time I've been surprised by people and it was SO much fun! They came from across Virginia, Tennessee AND ARIZONA! Oh my goodness I love those girls so so much! It was awesome. We hung out and caught up, went out for dinner, bought bulk candy, I got to see Chocklett, which was awesome, and the next day we went up on a mountain and took pictures. It was so fantastic!



AND THEN...I went to the wedding, which was the point of my visit. One of my best friends from Summer Staff, Amy, got married! (To Nathan, who we met that month, who she went out on her first date with, when she came to my house for Thanksgiving. I love it!) The wedding was absolutely beautiful! I got to see some old friends, and Amy was the most gorgeous bride ever!



Which, granted, wasn't too hard because she's drop dead gorgeous all the time. The ceremony was the best one I think I've been to. Pete did such an amazing job honoring Amy and Nathan. He captured their personalities and the ways they love each other and others love being around them. It was beautiful.

The next weekend...I can't even explain. It was quite possibly the best weekend of my life. It was SO much fun! One of my dear dear friends Mike came to visit. I know Mike through young life. He was one of my summer staffers two years ago and we've just been in touch since then. He's one of my favorite people in the world. He came with his friend Matt who I hadn't met but had heard a lot about. Matt is fantastic. We instantly became friends. Mike's been sharing the gospel with Matt recently and there have been some amazing stories. God is at work and I LOVE seeing it! We had some great conversations and the whole weekend was such a blessing. We went to the skydeck, got Chicago deep dish pizza, saw the festival of lights, went to Blue Man Group and had WAY too much fun. Both of them are such dear friends. I could go on and on about the weekend. Just ask about it if you want to hear more.




Favorite Picture of the Weekend!

And then the next weekend was THANKSGIVING! I flew back to Virginia and got to spend time with my family. I got to see my sister, who I haven't seen since Christmas. It was FABULOUS to catch up with her! We were up until the wee hours of the morning chatting. So good. Plus, I got to see lots of family, eat delicious food and make gingerbread houses!





Overall, life has been awesome. Hard at times, but great none the less. Hard because everyone lives so far away :( The Lord has been teaching me and blessing me like crazy. I only have one week left in Chicago, and then I'm off for lots more adventures! I'll share about that later :)

Grand Rapids!

Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to go up to Grand Rapids and visit my amazing friends! We didn't have school on Monday, so it was a long weekend for me. Actually getting there was quite an adventure with missed trains, cars not starting and errands to run, but I made it and it was a phenomenal weekend!

I got in late on Friday night and stayed at Abby's apartment. I woke up early and joined the divers for practice on Saturday. It was so good to see everyone and meet the new freshman. It was fun to get back on the boards again too :) I don't miss it like I miss vaulting, but it was definitely good to be back. I hadn't touched a board since Nationals in March, so it had been a while. But I can still do a front two and half pike, so I was okay with that, even though it wasn't that pretty.

I got to catch up a little bit with Sam, one of the divers after practice. I miss her so much! It was so good to just chat and hear about the team and everything.

I then went back to Abby's and Elizabeth came over. I essentially spent the whole weekend with the two of them and it was AMAZING! I love them so much and we had so much fun! It was great to catch up on the summer and life in general. Oh I miss them!

We packed some lunches and headed to Reeds Lake. It was the PERFECT weekend to go to Grand Rapids! It was truly a fall weekend! The weather was gorgeous! We sat out on a blanket and just chatted and ate lunch. Then, of course, we had to go to Jersey Junction to get some ice cream! Probably the low of the weekend was that they didn't have Chocolate Almond. My favorite. (but not too shabby of a low for the weekend)

We then went bargain shopping and got a couple things. It wasn't as successful as I was hoping, but it was fine. There aren't too many thrift shops around Chicago, so I miss them. We had some good finds though.

Then we headed back to Abby's for dinner and met up with our guy friends to play some games. It was good to see everyone! I miss those guys a lot.

Sunday morning we went to Crossroads. Oh my goodness I can't explain the love I have for the people there and that community. Such amazing worship and rich fellowship. It's sometimes painful how much I miss it. It was so good to be back. Yet it makes me want to go to Grand Rapids every weekend. I feel like Crossroads is the one thing that would ever keep me in Grand Rapids, but sometimes I think it would be worth it. Rod didn't preach, so that was unfortunate, but it was still a great sermon and so good to be back.

After church, we headed straight to an apple orchard and went apple picking! So much fun! We got there right as they opened, which was perfect timing.









We picked lots of apples and had to search for them. It was a bad crop this year, but it was fun to have to climb for them :) Then we got donuts, which is always a plus.
Love these girls!

We then headed to Chris' house and made apple crisp with our freshly picked apples. YUM! Zack and Tim came over too and we just chilled. We watched a movie and ate goodness. Sunday night we just hung out, tried to go bowling, but it didn't work out and then crashed. I was exhausted.

Monday I slept in, then went to Calvin's campus and had lunch with my old suite-mate. It was so good to catch up with her! I hung out at Calvin for a while and ran into a bunch of people, which was so fun! It was so weird being back there, yet it felt so normal.

Then I headed back to Chicago and got in around dinner time. It was a spectacular weekend, really, couldn't have gone better! The weather was absolutely amazing, I got to see my dear friends, and we had so much fun! Now, everyone has to come visit me... :)

Amazingness!

Well, I just signed up for Passion 2011!!! I'm PUMPED!!! I'm gonna need to get a job cause I feel like I've been spending way too much money, I'm not sure how this road trip thing next semester is going to work out, but I'm excited none the less. Road Trip Epicness is actually happening!

My amazing friend Lisa, who was my partner in crime last summer (2009), has committed herself (for some crazy reason) to an almost two week road trip with me!!!! Oh my goodness it can't come fast enough! It's going to entail driving to Atlanta, being a part of the amazing Passion Conference (which I am CRAZY stoked about!) then heading to a young life camp to do workcrew for a few days, and then down to Orlando where I'm gonna watch Lisa run the Disney Marathon! And then we'll make our way back to Virginia. AHHH!! I can't wait! And I just bought my ticket...so it's actually happening!

My Constant

So, recently I've realized, that I'm someone who hates to pass up an opportunity. I'm not tied down to anyone or anything enough to say no when an opportunity arises. I love the adventure of something new and when opportunities I like arrive, I tend to be a "go-getter." Leaving things behind and going into complete unknown places without anyone I know, is exciting. I like the thrill of it. I love thinking about meeting new people and hearing their stories, I love investing in relationships and going on adventures. Seizing an opportunity is basically how I ended up here. And interning at Champion. And going to Calvin. The last four years have been a result of jumping on board when God told me to go. Maybe it was even the fact that my parents moved. I didn't have the familiarity to go back to anyway. The Lord has been pushing me in new directions and has been filling me with his joy in these journeys. They've been hard, but so much fun!

There are many moments though, especially at the beginning of a new adventure, that I want to turn around and go back. The thrill and excitement start to fade as I settle in to a new place and realize that I am completely surrounded by unknowns. As fun as meeting new people is, it's a ton of work. And in this, I miss my friends. A lot. Just having someone know me like my friends do, not having to explain myself in certain situations. This hit me last weekend. I was just really missing people. It was like I wanted to "go back home," but I didn't know where home was. I wanted to be back at camp, but none of my friends are there anymore. I wanted to be back at Calvin, and granted most of my close friends are still around there, we've graduated, so things are different. And in all of this I realized that every single one of my close friendships is a long distance relationship. Every single one. And they always will be. That's what Young Life camp does to you. And going to school a million miles from what was once home. At camp you meet the most amazing people in the world, become great friends, and then they get spread all across the country. Or even world. Not gonna lie, it pretty much stinks. Everything is over the phone or computer. There's just this longing for that rich fellowship. I just miss them a lot. But God has been teaching me in these times.

It has been so great to realize that God is my constant. He is literally my only constant, but he is by far the best constant to have. As I move from place to place and have to start relationships all over, while still trying to keep the old ones too, my relationship with the Lord does not change. I don't have to start over. He doesn't live at camp and I had to say bye to him. He's been on all of my journey's with me. He knows the depths of my soul. He never leaves my side. He is my comfort and my source of strength. I couldn't do any of it without him. What a blessing that I don't have to! I never have to say bye to my best friend. How amazing.

Plus...having friends all over the country...means...ROAD TRIP! We'll see if it happens, but I'm hoping to spend a semester driving around visiting all of my dear dear friends, wherever they are. Epic road trip number one is already happening! Can't wait!

Chi-town

Chicago has been so much fun! It's been really different than I thought it would be, but I'm definitely loving it. It's still taking some time getting used to everything and figuring out where things are, but for the most part, I'm catching the hang of it. I, for the most part, finally understand the transportation system. Today I actually changed my transportation route without having to look it up and I got home perfectly. I was proud of myself.

I am really enjoying student teaching as well. I like my teacher a lot and I love my students! They're adorable! It has been such a blessing being in first grade. The Lord absolutely knows what he is doing. First grade has a great team of teachers who work together and stay out of the schools drama. They have been really great. I'm starting to get more and more into taking over the class. I've taken on two subjects and this week will probably pick up a third. It's busy and a lot of work, but I'm enjoying it, so it makes it worth while.

I love the girls that I'm living with and I think I've found a church. Things are going really well and the Lord has been teaching me a lot. A lot about prayer and pursuing my relationship with him. I'll make that one another post. Just thought I would update, things are going great and I'm really enjoying it!

He is in control

God keeps reminding me that He is the one in control and I'm just along for the ride. Which is actually a great reminder and makes life much more care-free. He knows what He's doing and wants the best for me, so I don't have to worry about any of it.

The Lord keeps changing things from the way that I think they will go. It's not even that I want them to go a certain way, or have an expectation of it, but it's just the way I pictured it. Or He shows me what my true purpose of being somewhere is when I thought it was something else. This happened a lot this summer. Sometimes things end up way better than I had pictured, and other times it's just really different and I have to change the way I think about it. It happened this summer with what I thought was going to be easy and what I thought was going to be a challenge. God flip flopped them and it threw me off for a little bit. But of course, in the end, I learned so much and everything turned out the way it was supposed to.

This has happened a couple times in Chicago. What it is going to be like, who I've become friends with, where I'm living...lots of things I thought would look like one thing, and then the Lord has just said, "nope, it's going to look like this instead." Well, I got to my school on Thursday morning and this happened yet again.

The school I'm student teaching at has been through a lot this summer. They just got a new principal, they've remodeled some stuff with the school, teachers have changed classrooms, and there seems to be a bit of relational drama in the school as a whole carried over from last year. So with everything being crazy, I'm pretty sure they completely forgot I was coming to student teach. I got there and found out that no one asked the teacher I was placed with if she wanted a student teacher. And she didn't. So the assistant principal walked over to a bunch of first grade teachers and asked if any of them wanted a student teacher. One said she did, so I'm now with a new teacher and in first grade instead of third.

I know that this is totally the Lord. I really really like my teacher a lot and the team of teachers in first grade are completely awesome, work really well together and are drama-free. So I'm so thankful for that. First graders are great. I really love them. They're so cute and really fun to teach. So I am excited.

But at the same time, this is not what I wanted, or why I thought I was coming to student teach in Chicago. I wanted to be in a 4th or 5th grade classroom because I wanted the experience with older students. I've already had 1st graders in one of my placements. One of the reasons I wanted to come to Chicago was so that I could get some experience dealing with rough situations that come up in an urban setting. I wanted to see how teachers dealt with behavior issues and I was hoping it would kind of give me more of a "backbone" when it comes to those situations. I think I want to teach special education in an urban high school, but the oldest grade I can teach for this semester is 5th, so that's why I wanted 4th or 5th. To get experience with behavior issues.

But obviously, that's not what God had in mind. So I'm not sure what He's doing, but I trust Him. I'll have so much experience with younger kids, it makes me wonder if that is where He's calling me instead. I have no idea. I feel like this has been happening with my thoughts about ministry as well. I keep saying that I hope to lead Young Life one day, but I honestly have no experience with High Schoolers. All the leadership positions the Lord has called me into has been leading other college students. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the Lord has in store.

I'm excited about this semester though. I'm still not really sure why I'm here, but I'm enjoying it and definitely experiencing new things. I'm excited to meet my students and see what the first day of school looks like in a first grade classroom. Students show up on Tuesday!

Welcome to Chi-town!

A camp post will be coming. One about the theme of lessons for the summer, but for now, we'll move on to my new chapter of life.

I got to spend a few days in Virginia with the absolute cutest nephews in the entire world! And then I was off to CHICAGO!


Love these little guys!


This is what you get when you say, "Jack, say 'cheese!'"


Of course Jack didn't like me the whole time I was there...until I was at the train station leaving...
I told him he better remember me at Thanksgiving :)

I took a 24 hour trip from Richmond to Chicago. It was a really long train ride, but I survived. I tried to pack as light as I possibly could. I was able to carry everything I brought for the semester. I have to say, I was quite impressed with myself. But just for the record, I would not recommend this. Even though everything fit into my bags, they were still extremely heavy. I had a carry-on sized suitcase on my back, a medium sized suitcase with my laptop bag on top and pillow on top of that in one hand, and a large suitcase that almost became the death of me in the other hand.



I thought I could check my bags once I got to D.C. Well apparently you can only check bags that weigh less than 50 lbs. Those are the bags I wouldn't have minded holding onto, I just wanted to get rid of the big bag. But, they wouldn't let me. So I had a three hour layover in D.C. and was sweating and in a lot of pain carrying around my suitcase, laptop bag and pillow. I'm gonna guess it was at least 150 pounds all together. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it, but I survived. I ended up getting some lunch and camping out at a cafe, cooling down and catching up with a dear friend. The time flew by.

Now, I'm here and I'm alive! There were many times on the train and in my first two days of being here that I just look around and ask God, "what am I doing here? and how did I get here?" I'm living in Chicago. I've never been to Chicago before. I'm here, getting thrown into a brand new city, a big city, and am doing it with 60 other people, most of whom I don't know. Crazy. The first two days seemed like chaos. So much being thrown at me, so much going on with finding housing and roommates and stuff, it was pretty overwhelming. But at the same time, I had this peace. I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I don't know why I'm here, but I know this is right. So that is a good feeling.

We got all of our housing stuff figured out yesterday, and that was COMPLETELY by the grace of God. It all worked out perfectly. I'm living in a four bedroom apartment, yes, four bedroom, with three other girls. Yes, that means I have my own room! I've only had my own room for like 3 years of my life! I'm so excited! And this is so crazy because coming into it, I was planning on sharing a one bedroom apartment with two other girls. My living situation is super sweet! I'm so thankful it all worked out and the Lord totally gets all the glory!

I head to my school tomorrow to meet my teacher. Student's don't start until Tuesday, but I'm gonna be going in on Thursday and Friday, but I'm not really sure what its going to look like. I went to the school today, I didn't go inside, but I wanted to make sure I knew how to get there. Its a bit of a commute, but could be worse. I thought it was going to be an hour and half, which is what it said when I looked it up, but it should only be 45 to 50 minutes. I'm anxious to meet my teacher and I just keep praying things work out. I'm in a third grade classroom and am definitely excited to get started. I'll let you know how it goes!