Blessings

We left Monday for Impact bright and early. Abby, Tucker, and Trevor spent the night with Eric and I, and we all woke up at 4:30am Monday morning to head to Providence. We returned Saturday afternoon from Impact very, VERY tired. We had so much fun and the Lord did great things. The theme was Coram Deo, meaning, In the Presence of God. We talked about everything from resisting temptation, surrendering to Christ, and the dangers of hypocrisy. I completely forgot to take my camera, which is so like me. So you will not get to see any pictures...sorry 'bout that. The Lord did big things this week and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to go, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am, however, definitely glad to be back. Here are some things that I missed while we were gone:

Showering barefoot. Of course camp bathrooms nasty. It is nice to come to home home and shower without putting on shoes, afterall, showers are to get you clean right?

No fear of roaches. I don't know how many cockroaches were killed in our cabin. Praise the Lord Eric and I have never had to share a house with roaches. I don't think I have ever seen one in our house...yet.

Sharing a bed. I'm happy to have my sleeping partner back :)

Shampoo in the shower. I like having my shampoo and soap already waiting for me in the shower, ya know, instead of taking it with you when you want to shower. At home, it's already there.

Good coffee. No explanation needed

Clean feet. I am a snob when it comes to cleaniness in my bedsheets. I don't like having dirty feet at bedtime, but when you are at camp, it is pretty much inevitable.

Although I am glad to be back in my own bed, what is camp without all of these things? A resort, not camp. Here are many things that I will miss from camp:

The dump. No I don't not mean going #2. The band leader, Chris White, led us in a little chant called "the dump." It. was. awesome. I'm thinking about introducing it to my high school students...not sure how that will go.

Hands lifted high. It was an absolute joy to see hundreds of middle school and high school students lifting their hands, praising the Lord. If all I got to see at camp was this, it was well worth it.

Relationships. I LOVED getting to build relationships with the students at camp. Eric and I had such a sweet family group of rising 11th graders, and I grew to love them so much! I also loved spending time with the rising 12th graders that Eric and I currently teach in Sunday School.

Of course there are so many more things that I loved about camp, I could spend all day talking/typing it all. I am so blessed that I got to go.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Psalm 67:1-3

Impact

Eric and I leave on Monday for Impact. Impact is the summer camp our church puts on for the middle and high schoolers at Camp Bob Cooper. For many campers, this is the highlight of their summer, and Eric and I are counselors this year.

Please, please be praying all next week for a few things:

• The hearts of the campers to be sensitive to God's truths
• For lives to be changed and for hearts to be turned to Jesus
• Opportunities for counselors and campers to have "heart" conversations
• The speaker, Troy Temple
• No injuries!
• The seminar leaders
• God would grant wisdom to the seminar leaders, counselors, and speaker to know how to answer certain questions and handle certain situations

Thanks for praying!

stumbled upon

So recently I have been a victim of stumbleupon.com. If you have never heard of this website, then here is your warning: You may become an addict.

Stumble upon is this site where you can choose various interests and then "stumble" upon other websites that correspond to those interest. One of my interest was recipes. This brings me to my point.

Raise your hand if you don't want to be healthy. Okay none. Raise your hand if you think unhealthy food is good. Okay I see a few. Raise your hand if you wish you could figure out ways to turn that "unhealthy" food into "less unhealthy" food. Ah, my point. I recently stumbled upon this recipe site that turns my kind of food into a little more, well, less guilty.

My confession is that I haven't yet tried a recipe, seeing how I just found it tonight. Just look and be amazed...



chicken nuggets-165 cal per serv       

         

Baked ziti-332 cal per

Taco dip-59 cal per serv



Garlic cheddar biscuits-97 cal per biscuit



 Seriously. Go check it out. My mouth is watering as I type. Hopefully the recipes are as good as they look, if anyone tries any, please let me know! I would love to hear thoughts :)

For The Kitchen

So I got this clock for Christmas (thanks Ashley!) to add to my "black and white accents" in the kitchen.

It's from Target and goes so well with the plates. Honestly, I haven't even put batteries in it yet because it's more for just looks...it isn't really a great "time-telling" clock...but I think it's so cute! Now, I'm on the search for black and white dishtowels and can't seem to find quite what I'm looking for. I want a fun design...so keep your eyes out for some!

The Transformation

As promised, here are some before/ after pictures of the house thus far...starting with the kitchen.

Note: When we bought the house, the kitchen had no oven. Also notice how awesome the floor, back splash, and border compliment each other (kidding)

So of course, the kitchen took a lot of sweat and wonderful friends and family to help us out a little. 

After painting the den yellow and wanting to accent with turquoise, I decided that I should probably blend the kitchen with the den since both rooms are basically connected. In the second picture, you can see that there is a window in the kitchen looking into the den.

So we painted the kitchen turquoise and added yellow/white striped curtains for the bay window:

Here is the product of freshly painted walls, new curtains, painted cabinets, a new island, new counter tops and new appliances...oh yea...remember that awesome back splash? We ditched it.

No back splash!

After putting in the new counter tops, I decided that I wanted to add black and white accents in the kitchen to tie in the stainless steel and dark counters. I am in the process of looking for fun black and white dishtowels so if you find any, let me know! However...I did find these fun plates to hang above the window that looks out into the den:

We still have the same floor but will replace it next. Next post I will reveal the den so far...stay tuned :)

Upgrades

So as many of you know, Eric and I bought a foreclosed townhouse in hopes to remodel a bit and then sell it. The house is more of an investment piece and probably will live in it for just a few years. It is two bedroom, 2.5 bath.  
So far this is what we have done: (Pics will come but right now I am at school)

• Replaced all the carpet
• Painted every single wall and door- which took so much time but THANKS to all our great friends who came to our painting party! (kitchen is turquoise, den is yellow, master bedroom is dark gray, 2nd bedroom is khaki, and other colors on stairways is light grayish blue...which I will eventually change bc I don't love) You could say our house is filled w/ color, but that is the way I like it :)
• Put in new granite countertops
• Took down the wallpaper in bathrooms/ kitchen (thanks mom and dad!)
• Put up curtains in den and kitchen (thanks mom!)
• Replaced appliaces with stainless steel (except for our 80s dishwasher)
• Sanded and painted the kitchen cabinets (thanks mom and dad!)
• Replaced knobs to kitchen cabinets (thanks mom and dad!)
• Put an island in the kitchen
• Took off (thanks dad!) those funny glass sliding doors on the showers and put up shower curtains
• Fixed the garage door to where it actually goes up and down by pressing a button!
• Replaced the sliding back door with a brand-spankin new one (it has blinds inside the door!)

Things we still need to do:

• Replace the floor in the den and kitchen
• Finish the half bath- paint/ figure out what to do about the sink
• Curtains in bedrooms
• Figure out more storage space

So, it's been awhile eh?

Okay Okay, I'm terrible, but I did warn you right? So a few things have happened since I first posted...I got a job. I am a high school teacher, and boy is it interesting. It's hard. It's great. It's HILARIOUS. Teenagers are weird, honest, annoying, in need of much loving, and let me just say I'm glad I am not one anymore. I'm actually in class right now and my third block is very challenging somedays. One kid just walked out on me for telling him to move seats because he wouldn't stop talking, another just asked for a pencil so he can work on his math homework (instead of doing his assignment in my class), another boy got mad at me for taking his cookies (literally)- they aren't supposed to eat in class.

My nerves run short some days more than others, but everyday on my way to school, I make sure I meditate on the Gospel. My prayer every morning is for Christ to love these kids through me that I may show them a steady, consistent, and genuine love that many have never received. When I am in the classroom and feeling impatient and annoyed, I simply recite the Gospel in my heart. I too, am a sinner. The only difference between me and many of my students is that I have Jesus.