Conclusions

They say that all things must come to an end. Sometimes, an ending is just what we have been waiting for; but other times, an ending brings only sadness and painful goodbyes. On the whole, the end of my time in Kentucky follows the latter.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have been having some health problems. I started having muscle spasms that would last (off and on) for hours - something the doctors couldn't explain. I went to see a neurologist and they ordered a round of tests, but still there are no answers other than the catchall of "maybe it is stress" (as if I haven't been more stressed at other times of my life?) or a sleeping disorder. Personally, I am not really buying either guess, but thankfully the spasms have subsided for now.

In some ways these spasms marred my ending in Kentucky. My last two weeks were spent going back and forth to the doctor/hospital/specialists - and when I wasn't in Lexington doing that, I was at home. In a strange way it felt a little how I imagined life would have been in the dorms if you didn't have class. Because of Shannon's odd work schedule, I got to see her on a lot of different days and we had a fun little LOTR party as a result. When everyone came home from work I got to hear how their days went, along with any other recent news. I got to do some baking (which is generally a stress reliever for me). And, perhaps best of all, I got to spend a lot of quality time with Allen (who was absolutely wonderful - he put off his trip home so he could be my nurse and chauffeur me to all of my various appointments). So there were some blessings out of these spasms too.

Last Saturday I left Kentucky. The goodbyes were, of course, the hardest. Both Jenny and Jenna made me cry as I hugged them each for the last time (I probably would have cried with Shannon too, but she came in at 6:30am to say her goodbye and I was a little out of it). My empty room looked quite desolate and it was odd to walk away from the Rockcastle House knowing that it was not my home any longer.

Thankfully, the last few days have brought a little more peace with that transition. I had a wonderful trip to Texas (and I didn't even melt in the heat!) and was briefly in Seattle before heading to Leavenworth for time with family. I still don't know what lies ahead for me; it looks like I may be in Portland this fall, but we'll see. For now I am looking forward to my cousin's wedding, Allen's visit to Oregon, being back in the Northwest, and spending some time with family and friends.

I definitely left a piece of my heart in the hills of Kentucky with a wonderful group of people whom I will miss dearly. But, for now, this seems to be the end of my Kentucky story.

Blessings.

You Know You Are in the South...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but life has been crazy.

The month of August brought along a few unique Southern experiences.

During the first weekend of this month Allen took me to the Kentucky Speedway to watch the Indy 300. And yes, that is Indy car racing. His friend's little sister is an Indy car driver and she was able to get us passes for the race. What was cool was that we had really special passes - we could go anywhere. Well, technically, we weren't supposed to go to the grandstands...but we could go anywhere else, including the garages and the pit areas. It was way too loud (even with earplugs) to be down in the pits during a race, so we ended up sneaking into the grandstands. Luckily we didn't sit in a spot where someone had tickets.

During the first race, which was the shorter and lower level race, Ana Beatriz (his friend's sister) ended up getting third place. It was pretty neat to be there courtesy of someone who placed, and I felt especially cool when we saw her afterward and she gave me a hug.

The Indy 300 was also fun to watch. I even recognized some of the racers' names - Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti.

The people attending were also fun to watch. It is an eclectic group of people who go to races. Unfortunately, we had some extra people watching. For some reason we couldn't find the car afterward and walked through a ton of people before, eventually, finding it.

My other recent Southern experience came when we attended the "Little World's Fair" in Brodhead (the next town over). This fair has been taking place for over one hundred years. It was another fun people watching event - especially since I recognized quite a few of them through my work with CAP.

At the fair I tried a few new foods while also attending a "mud run." I'm still not entirely sure what the point of the mud run was, but basically ATV's went through a mud patch and got timed. It got old after an hour of the same thing.

My new foods, however, were very interesting. There is a saying in Kentucky - "If it's not fried, it ain't worth eating." I tried deep-fried Twinkies and deep-fried Oreos. Both were actually pretty good, which surprised me.

We were also able to knock a few things off the list of things Allen needed to try. Like riding a Ferris Wheel and eating cotton candy.

The South is definitely an interesting place...I am going to miss Kentucky.

Prayer

I can't believe that August is almost half-way over already - my time here is just flying by way too quickly. I leave next Saturday the 22nd...it still hasn't hit home, that is for sure.

I can, of course, continue to use prayer for what is next - I am still applying and still very unsure of where I will be in the future - but today I am asking specifically asking for prayer for my health.

Without going into too many details, I have been going back and forth since last weekend between the ER, Urgent Care, and doctors...tomorrow I am off to a specialist who can hopefully tell me what has been going on. The waiting all week has been very wearing and I am just exhausted in general. So, if you can, please pray the doctor I see tomorrow will have the wisdom and foresight to understand what is going on inside my body, and that I will have the courage and patience to accept whatever the findings are (or that I will accept the waiting period if that is necessary).

Thanks.

Janice, Joe, and Corie

One of the best and worst parts of living in my house is that we basically have a revolving door. There is always someone new coming in and there is always a friend going out.

Our short-term volunteers make up a large part of this revolving door process. In the month of July we were blessed to have three amazingly wonderful short-term volunteers with us and I just want to share a little about them and what they have meant to our house.

Janice actually came in the middle of June to join us for six weeks. She is pretty much from Virginia, but she and her husband recently relocated to North Carolina. Although she was originally hoping to volunteer at camp, she ended up volunteering in Respite (a program that provides respite to individuals with disabilities and their families). Some of the best meals I have had here have been in the last six weeks. Janice blessed our whole house by cooking every week and spoiling us with gourmet and homemade dishes. The blessings didn't end with her cooking though; she possesses one of the sweetest spirits I have ever known. I had some wonderful conversations with her and greatly appreciate her because of it!

Joe spent the month of June working at camp, then joined our house for July to help our VISTA volunteer Erica out in the Creation Care program. He is from Michigan and will be heading into his junior year of college. Joe is just a ridiculously crazy guy with a deep heart and the spirit of a servant. In his first week Joe dug our house a compost pit (without being asked!). He also continued to amaze us by his willingness to jump in and help out whenever needed. Again, some great conversations were had in the last month.

Corie came to CAP from Staten Island, New York. She was only here for two weeks but she deeply touched each of us in different ways and we all wished that she would have stayed longer. What's great is that Corie loved her time here so much that she is considering coming to volunteer for a year - which is huge for her since she is a full-time Kindergarten teacher. Shortly after joining us, we noticed that Corie liked to knit...a lot. I think we all just assumed she was making scarves for the women she worked with at FLAC. The scarves she made, however, were for us. And she made each of them for how they fit our personality. For example, Shannon's is green and made from crazy yarns, while Joe's was not really a scarf, but more of a knit sweatband.

I wish that you all could meet Janice, Joe, and Corie. I know that my descriptions don't even come close to doing them justice. Each of them, in their own ways, drew me out of myself and forced me to think about life and God in a new way. And it is hard to ask for more than that.

Sadly, all three of them left last Friday. Our house is definitely going to miss them!!!

And yet, the revolving door continues. Already we have two new short-term volunteers here with a few more on the way, along with a couple new long-term volunteers. All the change can be tiring, but, as I said, this is one of the best parts of being here. And hey, you can always use more friends.

Peace.

This is a picture we (Jenny, Corie, Shannon, and I) took last week at Sonic. Corie had never been before and she was fascinated by the idea of a going to a drive-in restaurant. I think our waitress thought we were crazy, but we had a blast, so who cares?

School Readiness

On Tuesday we had our school readiness distribution, so this was the day that all of the families came to pick up their backpacks, goodies, and assorted clothing. We also provided each family with a voucher to the Family Dollar store and a coupon to CAP's thrift store Grateful Threadz. Thankfully, Jenny is extremely organized and everything went smoothly.

We had ninety-nine students and forty-seven families sponsored through this distribution. The distribution was supposed to start at 10am; Jenny and I arrived at 8:30 to finish putting together the last few things and there were already several families waiting outside. Eventually, after all the other volunteers arrived to man their stations, we let them start coming in, five families at a time, to begin the process...

Step #1: Check-In
This was my station. Each family was supposed to bring the letter that we sent them with the information about the distribution. The letters served as proof for who they were and provided us with their family number. After seeing the letter I would cross them off the list and explain the rest of the process. Kiara, my volunteer manager, served as our bouncer - letting the right number of families in at a time - and our bag lady.

Step #2: Clothing
The majority of our clothes were a very random assortment and, unfortunately, we did not even have very many clothes for kids. We did, however, have underwear for all sizes and at least the teens and even a few parents were able to get some new clothes. This station was kind of crazy though. Each child could get five clothing items. An underwear pack, three pairs of socks, a full "Hannah Montana" outfit, and a singular piece of other clothing all counted as one item each. Hence the confusion. At Christmas we got this giant pallet full of these "Hannah Montana" clothes and I think every county has been swimming in them since.

Step #3: Backpacks
Here we had all of the backpacks lined up in long lines according to their grade and separated between boys and girls. Joe was guarding the packs and helping each student pick out one that they liked. It was fun to see which packs the kids would like - and thankfully they seemed to like some of the packs that we had tons of!

Step #4: Hygiene Kits and Grab Bags
Jenny and I worked hard to put together bags with hygiene items for each family. We had some basic hygiene kits from Op Share that we added to - mainly soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. The grab bags consisted of a lot of random items that we had in the office that we thought kids might like. Such as books, hot cocoa, granola bars, etc...Theses were then separated out by age range and gender.

Step #5: Check-Out
This was Jenny's station. Her main responsibility was to check each family, making sure that they had everything they were supposed to get and that they didn't have anything they weren't supposed to have. She also gave each family their vouchers and coupons.

As aforesaid, everything went smoothly. We had just the right amount of help and only a few people showed up who were not signed up. It was great too because a reporter from the Mt. Vernon Signal came to do a piece on the distribution (hopefully Jenny makes it in the paper - it has been one of her goals for the year!). All in all it was a great day and hopefully a lot of children will enjoy their school year a little more because of it.

Even though the sign-ups for School Readiness were in May, we have been able to help out other families who missed the sign-ups. With school starting next week, we have been getting multiple calls each day from families who need help with school supplies, and thankfully, we have enough items left over to continue helping out.

This is Lonnie. He has been a student up at CAP's preschool, but he is about to enter Kindergarten. Although, maybe you can't see him with all that camo!

Exit Luncheon

Today was my exit luncheon. There are five of us long-term volunteers who will be leaving in the next month, so the volunteer department had a short ceremony to celebrate our time and our service here in Appalachia.

The ceremony was actually really nice. All of our managers came - even Jennifer. I e-mailed her last week and invited her to come, which really meant a lot to me. I like Robyn (my new manager) a lot, but I've only been working for her for two weeks, so it was great that Jennifer made it. Anyway, the managers presented us with our plaques that commemorate our year of service and said a few words about each of us. Jennifer said a lot of wonderful things about me - which was pretty humbling because I'm sure I don't deserve half of them - but again, it meant a lot.

Jenny warned me before we headed over that they might try to get us to share, but we both figured that our group was pretty quiet so we weren't going to have to worry about it. Wrong. Allen was actually the one who started us off, which was unexpected (especially since Robyn was joking that you can never get two words out of him). In the end, we all ended up sharing a little.

It was funny because Allen talked about coming to CAP with high expectations which, for those of you who have been following this blog from the beginning, was a polar opposite from how I came to CAP. I came here because I knew that this was where God wanted me to be - but not because I thought I would love it or have a great time or make amazing friends (which I did). I thought I would hate it here and that I would sit in my room and read five books a week or something. Thankfully, God had other plans and I came into a community that fit me, strengthened and encouraged me, and loved me. And I would not trade the last year for anything (except maybe world peace).

As I started reflecting on my time, I realized I was about to cry (one of many times that happened throughout the luncheon), so I cut my little speech short. It was wonderful to hear what all the other volunteers had to say about their experiences here and to just share that space with them.

At the close of the ceremony, we were presented with our safety awards for being accident free all year. CAP gives out mugs as safety awards. Ironically, we all received mugs. Everyone was actually in shock that Allen received a mug because McCreary housing has been responsible for at least a third of all the accidents in CAP this year and he has been to the ER twice. Apparently all his accidents were "unpreventable" so he still got a mug (Dana did not, but that is because he backed their work truck into a mailbox).

The whole luncheon, however, was a little surreal. It still hasn't quite sunk in that I am leaving soon. Last Friday I bought my plane ticket home, so it really is official. I fly into Seattle on August 26th. I don't know how long I will be there, but at least for a few weeks. The future is still filled with questions and confusion so, as always, prayers are greatly appreciated.

Blessings.

What I Do Now

Now that Adult Ed has closed I have started helping out with CAP's Family Advocacy program. Family Advocacy coordinates two major outreach events - Christmas Boxes and School Readiness - while also helping with emergency home improvements, getting supplies/clothes to those in need, and helping to pay bills for participants.

My housemate Jenny has worked in Family Advocacy all year and I am getting to be her little helper now - basically I am her slave. Okay, not really, but when someone asks me what I do now that is usually my answer.

I have only been working here for the last week and a half, but I am really enjoying it. The Family Advocacy caseworkers (this year, Kelly and Jenny) get teased a lot by the Housing volunteers who say that they just sit around and ask the housing guys to lift stuff for them. This, however, is not true. I have actually been really impressed with all that they do and have completely gained a new respect for them. They have a wonderful opportunity to really help the people of their counties in some amazing ways.

And we don't just sit around. I feel like we are constantly lifting, sorting, or going on home visits. Which has been fun - I am learning a lot about my county and its residents.

Another nice thing is that I am still able to teach at the jail two days a week. The new center has yet to open, so Sister Therese and I keep going and working with the women to keep them from losing anything they've learned.

Next week is our county's school readiness distribution. Jenny has received many donations of school supplies, backpacks, and new clothes to hand out to 100 children in Rockcastle County - which is amazing. So we have spent many hours getting everything sorted and organized and ready for the distribution next Tuesday. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

A few prayer requests...this week CAP made an announcement that they would have to let seventeen individuals go due to the economy. Prayer for these individuals and their families would be great. Also continued prayer for the volunteers who have, or are, transitioning out of CAP is much appreciated - it is not a good time to be looking for a job (or even a volunteer position!). And if you can, please pray that I would sleep; I am still having trouble getting a good night's rest. Thanks.

Peace.

The Smokey Mountains

About two weeks ago I was able to go camping in Smokey Mountain National Park. It was amazing. Especially to someone who hasn't seen mountains in months (they still weren't western mountains, but they were at least big enough to call mountains).

The highlights of the trip:

• Summitting the third highest peak in the park - which was by the way a ten mile hike and a 3,000 foot elevation gain
• Celebrating the above summit by eating fried okra, ribs, and ice cream
  
• Crossing over into North Carolina for the first time
• Spending time with Allen
  
• Hiking eight miles to the Ramsey Cascades
• Not being attacked or eaten by the bear/mountain lion combo
  

All in all, it was a fun (if not exhausting) weekend filled with good hiking, good conversations, and good food.

At the summit of Mt. LeConte (North Carolina is off in the distance)

This is the lodge you can hike up to and stay at - or you can just hike back down.

I'm guessing this one is pretty self-explanatory...

The Ramsey Cascades

Goodbye Adult Ed!

It is officially over. As of last Thursday, CAP's Adult Education program is closed - forever.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but, in a way, I am kind of relieved that it is done. For five months we have been planning to close and, frankly, the waiting and expectancy was a little waring.

Although a lot of amazing things were accomplished in the last five months, it has been hard to know that every project I started would only be temporary. And because we were closing fewer students were willing to work with us - not wanting to get started only to be dropped in the middle of the summer. But now it is all done.

Most of last week was spent packing things up and getting everything ready to be sent over to the school board. Last Monday they came to pick up a lot of our stuff - things we had carefully packed in order to best preserve the furniture, books, and technology; their method of "moving," however, was to throw (and I literally mean throw) everything into the back of an open, flat-bed trailer. It is not every day that you see someone toss a computer tower. Our staff had a hard time watching - it was a little like being slapped in the face for all the work we had done - and I can't even be glib by saying "it's their problem now," because I know that my students will be affected. I only hope that whoever ends up running the program cares more for the students than they did for their equipment.

One blessing from last week was the CAP's volunteer department. They hosted a potluck lunch last Wednesday in honor of our program. Their department, in general, has been amazing through this transition. Before we moved and lost staff in early March, Jennifer brought in community resources for all staff members losing their jobs and the volunteer department (on their own) made lunch for us every week. They even catered our graduation ceremony back in February. Perhaps the most important thing they have done for us though is to care for us. Understandably, many employees did not know what to say to our staff - I guess you could say they were struggling with survivor's guilt - and thus, ignored us. It didn't affect me too much, but I know it really did impact Jennifer and Judy. The volunteer department as a whole, however, made a point of talking with and visiting us - a gesture that was greatly appreciated. (They also put up the sign in the photo for our last day)

For our last day, we all went out to lunch together. It was nice to spend a little time together before saying goodbye. In the afternoon we (carefully) brought our last bit of equipment over to the school board before treating ourselves to ice cream. And then, I cleaned and said goodbye. I will miss working with Jennifer and Judy - they are truly amazing and I have been so blessed by them both this year (there was many a time when Judy would remind me that God was still in control, no matter how bleak the future seemed).

So here is to Adult Ed. May it rest in peace, and may the new program start well (and soon) and serve as a valuable asset to the people of Rockcastle County.

Blessings.

Happy Independence Day (Late)!

I know I am a few days late, but Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful fourth of July.

Our house decided to host an all-volunteer potluck barbeque and then attend the local fireworks show down at Renfro Valley. Only a few volunteers came, but we had a wonderful time. We had a lovely meal consisting of burgers (both beef and boca), hot dogs, potato wedges, strawberries, blueberries, brownies, chips, and soda...with a surprise dessert finish (it was a surprise because almost everyone left before we had it) of pizookies!

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the delicious goodness that is known as a pizookie, I will explain. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "Pizookie: noun, commonly referring to a cookie baked in a pizza pan topped with ice cream - piz-ookie" (Okay, I'm lying about the OED). If you have ever been to BJ's Pizza you probably know what I mean. Imagine a giant cookie, freshly baked and hot from the oven, piled high with swiftly melting vanilla ice cream. That, my friends, is a pizookie.

Anyway, back to the barbeque...a lot of people ended up leaving right after we ate, which was fine since we didn't really have anything planned until the fireworks started at 10pm. Those of us left ended up sitting in the "Mediation Room" (I think it is supposed to be the Meditation room, but whoever spelled it on our house map left off a t) and going back and forth between brain benders and The Book of Questions - which led to some very interesting discussions. The question we debated the longest was along the lines of "If you could end poverty world-wide by killing one innocent person, would you do it?" Not exactly the most fun to think about...

This year was the first year that Renfro Valley has hosted a fireworks show, so we really had no idea what to expect. It turned out really well though. They had a good solid thirty minutes of fireworks. The one sad thing was that it was raining - well, just drizzling. I must say I find it ironic that I have had sunny, clear fourth of July's since 2003 in the Pacific Northwest (with the exception of '06 when I was in Chicago) and my one July in Kentucky it rains. What are the odds?

In devotion the other night, Jenny asked us to reflect on what we are thankful for about living in America. I am, of course, very thankful for all the freedoms we have by living in this country - many of which I know that I take for granted. But this year, perhaps more than others, I am very thankful for all the people who have defended this country. Various members of my family have served in the military throughout the years and I am thankful for their sacrifices. I have particularly been thinking about this with the big push taking place in Afghanistan right now (Allen's step-brother is a marine participating in this mission).

Well, I guess that is the end to my rambling. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend and was able to spend it with family and friends.

Blessings.

The Beginning of the End

I don't know about everyone else, but I cannot believe that June is almost over! Which means I have two months to figure out what to do with my life - at least for the next year of it. Yikes!

Today is my second to last day in Adult Ed. It is so weird that after tomorrow I am done here. The last ten months have flown by. I don't have an accurate count, but I have probably seen close to two hundred students in my time here. There have been over fifteen GED graduates since I came. I have proctored hundreds of tests and have made thousands of copies (I am, however, hoping that since I got our program to be more recycling conscious that I have made up a bit for all those trees killed). And tomorrow at 7pm, it is all over.

...

It is odd - I just said goodbye to my friend Kelly who is a volunteer in McCreary County. She leaves Wednesday to head home to Chicago. We had to laugh, because who knew a year ago that we would have both been here at CAP. We met last June when we were both prospective volunteers interviewing with CAP. What is funny is that neither one of us thought the other person was going to actually come and volunteer - but we both did come and we both have loved our time here.

One of the strangest parts of saying goodbye to other volunteers is wondering if I will ever see them again. But, as Paul aptly reminded me, there is always the final reunion (heaven) to look forward to (too bad it will take Catholics a little longer to get there since they have work their way through purgatory first, but I guess that is what they get for believing in it - just kidding).

Anyway, I guess the beginning of the end of my time in Kentucky has started. I also said goodbye to Paul and Dana this weekend. Thankfully I should (hopefully) have a respite from the goodbyes until the end of July when a few more volunteers will bid farewell to CAP. And who knows, maybe I will have a few more answers to my questions of "what's next?" by then.

If you can, I would appreciate prayer for guidance - for me and all the other volunteers who are leaving CAP soon - that we would be open to the paths before us and that we would have confidence to step into our new roles. My former housemate Kim has an interview on Wednesday for a teaching position in Colorado - I am sure she would appreciate prayer for that too! And one last request: I still am not sleeping very well and would like to be. Thank you for your prayers!

I thought I would close this post with a quote that has been staring at me for the last week (it's on my desk at work). It has been a good reminder to keep pushing on each day in Adult Ed.

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small
ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to
sleep in peace." Victor Hugo

Peace.

Goodbyes, Threads, and Sleep Deprivation

For some reason this has been a draining week. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have spent the majority of this week trying to fill my days. We've had students everyday, but they don't generally come in until the afternoon...which means I have mornings to myself. And even though I have things I should be doing (like applying for a job for next year), I find myself completely unmotivated to do anything productive.

It has also been a lonely week. Jennifer is on vacation and Paul moved to Jackson to do housing, so it has just been Judy and I in the office. With Paul gone, our house has been down one more person, and Kim leaves today. I am not particularly excited about these changes. In the last few months we have lost seven housemates - SEVEN! And while I am thankful for the housemates I still have left, and am excited for our summer together, it is still sad to say goodbye to so many friends in such a short time. Those seven only include my housemates, but there are many other volunteers that I have befriended in the last year who are also leaving or already gone.

I don't like goodbyes. There are just too many of them in life. I am sad to see the end of this season approaching. And I am anxious about the future - I know I shouldn't be. I know that the thread before me has not ended; I just can't see where it is leading me. I suppose that is where faith comes in, right?

So, time for the million dollar question: what's next for me? Who knows...I am looking at doing another year of volunteer service, but am undecided where. I found an organization that I am excited about (Notre Dame Mission Volunteers), and am currently waiting to hear back if there are still open spots. The majority of their programs focus on education - which is what I'm looking for. I could probably choose between continuing in Adult Ed or switching to an in-school position (or at least this is the hope). While they have service sites across the country, the three I am most considering are Baltimore, DC, and Phoenix. But, like I said, I am still waiting to hear back from them, and by next week I could be applying somewhere else. We'll see.

If you catch yourself with nothing to pray about, I would appreciate any prayers for guidance and energy. There are still a few decisions that need to be made about what I will do after June 30th (when Adult Ed closes), on top of deciding what comes next for me. And, unfortunately, I am tired. I have not been sleeping well the last few weeks - maybe the stress is getting to me - and I am finding myself more and more exhausted.

Thanks.

Eve

When we went to the Art Institute I was delighted to find two new pieces that really caught my attention. The first was a painting by Pisarro (at right). I tend to be a sucker for Impressionism, so it wasn't too surprising that this piece drew me in.

The Rodin sculpture, one of Eve, however, caught me off guard. I suppose it was her sense of shame that struck me. I am assuming that Rodin meant for this to be Eve after the fall - perhaps in the first awareness of her nakedness. Her position, her futile attempt to cover and hide herself, is a legacy carried on by many women (and men) today. I think of my own life and how often I try to hide who I am, so I can "fit in" or feel more "normal." But we weren't created to hide ourselves, or to change who we are to fit an "ideal" personality, body type, or whatever else society tries to convince us to conform to. Instead we were created as unique individuals who bear the image of God in a way that no one else can. The grace of the gospel is that despite the effects of the fall and our sin, Christ came to redeem us - to call us out of ourselves in such a way that we might recognize our place in the greater scheme of life.

I think this is a lesson I have been learning this year. In a way this theme has been haunting me, stalking me as I move into different situations. Who would have thought that a year of service would have resulted in teaching me self-confidence, or at least start me on a path to a healthier appreciation of self.

The following quote, in particular, has been following me. I first read it on my friend Sarah's blog (thanks Sarah!), then at WorkFest I came across it again when one of the college groups read it during a devotion. After that I finally had to look it up for myself; it was like an unknown song that was stuck in my head. Since then I have read several blogs and books that remind me of this quote. So here it is, the quote of my year:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson

Chicago!

This past weekend I, along with four of my housemates and Allen, crammed into one car and travelled north to Chicago for a weekend in the big city. I think we have been talking about doing this since Bekah first came to visit me in December - who knows we may have been talking about it since before then.

We ended up leaving Mt. Vernon around 8pm on Thursday night, which was a little later than we'd hoped for, considering the fact that we had a six and a half hour drive ahead of us. Paul stayed awake, however, and we ended up making it to Chicago around 2am with no problems (although we did drive through some awesome lightning storms between Lexington and Louisville).

On our first day, we headed downtown. I was acting as the Chicago tour guide, so we started off at Millennium Park to see the bean. One Chicago site down and the girls were done with sightseeing and were ready for shopping. As they headed toward Michigan Avenue, Paul, Allen, and I walked through the rest of the park and wound up at Buckingham Fountain. Thankfully it was a beautiful day (though a little chilly when the winds picked up - but it's Chicago, so what else would you expect?), so we took a stroll along the lake shore before heading back into the heart of downtown to meet up with the girls. We were also able to take a few minutes of rest and contemplation inside a beautiful old church located on Michigan Avenue.

We all met up for dinner at one of Chicago's most famous pizza parlors for some Chicago deep-dish - and Bekah was able to join us at this point. After dinner, we headed toward the Art Institute to take advantage of their free Friday night admission. We weren't there long enough to see everything, but I saw the entire Impressionism and Modern European exhibits, with a little time to explore a few other exhibits. While I enjoyed seeing a few of my favorite pieces (Monets and Chagal's "White Crucifxion"), I found two new pieces that I really liked: Camille Pisarro's "Rabbit Warren" (painting) and Rodin's "Eve" (sculpture) - perhaps more on these later.

After the Art Institute, we were off to find a bar that had the Laker v. Nuggets game on, so Jenna and Kim could root against one another and cheer for their respective hometowns teams. Sadly for Kim, the Lakers won. But we still had a good time.

Saturday was a little less busy of a day. We all went out to breakfast with Bekah before heading downtown to go see "Mary Poppins." Okay, so I know I just saw it over Easter, but it was really good...and since everyone else (minus Kim) wanted to go see it, I just had to tag along...It was still fun the second time too. This was also the first time Allen had ever seen any version of "Mary Poppins" or any Broadway musical - so it was an important day. After a late dinner we headed over to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks, which is always a good way to spend a summer evening.

One of my favorite times of the weekend was Sunday morning, because we all split up and I got to have a much needed sister date with Bekah. We disappeared in a coffee-shop for a few hours, getting a chance to catch up on each other's lives. While growing up has been great for our relationship - we don't fight nearly as often as we did when we were little - it is sad because now we rarely see each other, and I miss having her around.

As all good things must, the weekend came to a close and it was time to hit the road again. We discovered on our drive back that Indiana's slogan "America's Crossroads" is true; it felt as if every car in America was on I-65S Sunday afternoon - at least while we went through a section that was down to one lane...

I think we are all a little tired from the weekend, but we're recovering and will soon catch up on some sleep (hopefully).

Blessings.

Disaster Relief Follow-Up

CAP was able to put together a video featuring the work we recently did in eastern Kentucky with Disaster Relief. If you want to check it out, click the title of this post - it should take you to CAP's website. The video should appear in the top right corner.

Peace.

Catch-Up

Since it has been a few weeks since my last post, I thought I would have a catch-up post. Here goes...

The Wednesday after I got back from Disaster Relief, about two weeks ago, I received a distressing phone call. Allen, along with Dana and Joe (a new volunteer), were in the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning. Let's just say that things went wrong with one of their jobs on the last day of disaster relief.

Thankfully, they made it to the hospital and were put on oxygen in time that there shouldn't be any permanent damage. They are all still recovering, however, though each of them has been affected differently. But overall, they are fine. Praise God.

Needless to say, that week did not finish out well for me. Although the weekend almost made up for it.

Allen and I most of the weekend together, which was a lot of fun. We finally made it out to the last waterfall, Princess Falls, in McCreary County (there are five main waterfalls and we have hit the other four since December). We also made a trek out to the Maker's Mark distillery, our first stop on the Bourbon Trail. The tour was neat - we were able to see bourbon made from start to finish. At the end we got a sample; Maker's Mark is very smooth, I recommend it. After Maker's Mark, we headed back so we could make it to contra. It was a nice night for dancing, although both of us were a little tired.

Luckily, we got to relax for most of Sunday and Monday. Other than hiking out to an abandoned fire tower for sunset and doing a little baking, we didn't do a whole lot. Which was a good way to spend Memorial Day weekend.

Things at work have been pretty crazy the last few weeks, but they are finally slowing down. We held what we called a "GED Blitz." Basically we just did a lot of advertising that anyone could come in and take the practice tests for the GED, and if they passed then we could sign them up for the real test. The "blitz" was two weeks ago; since then we have been trying to get everybody ready and all signed up for the test - the first part of which was today! Hopefully everything went well. I brought the paperwork down this morning and everyone was there - always a good sign.

With the last GED test (at least, the last our center will host) taking place this week I have a feeling our student attendance is going to drop. We had two students today. And they both came after 3pm. Here's hoping this isn't the new trend!

Blessings.

Disaster Relief (Part Two)

Saturday started much like Friday. We headed out to Maytown - mostly the same group of people, but with a few new faces. When we arrived we split up to work different jobs. I was assigned to assist Dan, so Katie (an eastside volunteer) and I walked around the neighborhood with him to check on some different families. After a while we headed back to the community center. The sidewalks were still covered with muck (inches of it in some places), so we spent the rest of the morning shoveling it off.

After lunch, Katie and I left the community center to join Dana and Allen, who were helping an elderly woman toss out things that had been ruined by the flood. Once we finished there we checked in with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team; they had previously mentioned to the guys that they might have a few jobs they could use our help on. We ended up driving around for a while until we found the right road, but we eventually made it. We cleaned out a basement and then moved on to help clean out an elderly woman's house next door.

Cleaning out Barbara's house was hard. From what I could gather, she is pretty much on her own. She has one neighbor (her tenant actually) who checks in on her, but other than that her family has pretty much abandoned her. What complicated matters more is that Barbara is a pack-rat. She has saved almost everything - including trash.

As we sorted through the damage, we found many things that had to be tossed - basically everything that was on the floor needed to be thrown away. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a victim of a flood (or any natural disaster), but, on top of that, to have to sit and watch as strangers came through your house and just threw all of your stuff away...it must be awful. Anything and everything that was salvageable she wanted saved - even if it really wasn't worth saving.

To look at her you could tell that she was on the edge between having hope and feeling hopeless. Pain and fear were written on her face and in her body language. All she could do was stroke the kitten that she and her neighbor had rescued from the flood.

There was a part of me that wanted to talk to her - to hear her stories and to ask her how she was doing. But I just couldn't. Meeting people has never been my strongsuit, but it was more than that; I think I was scared of the answers. Scared of getting drawn into a life that I knew I would, likely, never see again. As I have talked with other volunteers, especially those that work with distressed populations more often, I have been told there are two possibilities: either you go crazy trying to take on the pain of the world, or you learn to disconnect yourself somehow. I guess I can see the truth in that, but isn't there someway to find a balance for it all?

Disaster Relief (Part One)

This weekend I headed east to assist with the flood cleanup taking place in Floyd County, Kentucky. CAP's disaster relief team was, more or less, assigned Floyd County, so, starting last Thursday, CAP employees and volunteers joined together in the effort to help victims of the flood.

Thursday night Kim, Paul, and I drove out to the east side to join the crews for Friday and Saturday. To be honest, I am not really sure I knew what to expect. This weekend was supposed to be our volunteer retreat, but it was cancelled so we could go help with the flood cleanup. In a way, our retreat still happened - a large group of us were present, and even though we weren't necessarily focusing on ourselves all the time, we were able to join together in work that directly and practically served the needs of the people. And we had plenty of fun together both on and off the job site.

Friday morning we split up into different work groups. The majority of us headed to Maytown, a small community that was hit hard with floodwaters. By the time we arrived, the majority of the waters had receded, but there was plenty of damage left in its wake. There were many flooded basements and many yards that had turned into ponds. Most of the homes were built off of the ground in some manner - many of the homes had ground level basements and most of the trailers were raised off the ground at least four to five feet - because of building codes influenced by past floods. Despite these precautions, however, many homes were still flooded on their main levels.

Our contact in Maytown was a man named Dan. He and his wife are former CAP volunteers who now run the Maytown Center (a faith-based community center). Both their home and the community center were flooded, although, thankfully, only their basement was flooded in their home and in parts of the community center the water rose to the top of the steps and stopped there. Anyway, Dan helped us find most of our projects; he would walk around the community asking who needed help, then give us their information so we could send a crew.

My first project Friday morning was working on a chouse (a church basement turned into a home for the pastor and his family: church + house = chouse). The basement had flooded, so we were trying to get the last part of the water out the door, while also going through each room and sterilizing it with bleach water.

My job was to help squeegee the floors. The work wasn't hard and luckily I had ended up with a really good squeegee, so I could get a lot of work done. Unfortunately, however, not all of the other squeegees worked as well, so one of the other volunteers kept asking to borrow it. Now this really should not have been a big deal - it wasn't my squeegee anyway, and we were all working toward the same goal. But for some reason it really bothered me. I wanted to get a lot of work done and to feel useful. Using the other squeegee, I couldn't accomplish either of those two goals. I am ashamed to admit that it was quite the struggle at first for me to have a good attitude about this. Here I was, trying to help others, and all I could think about was how much work I was doing. How pathetic is that? I started praying that I would have an attitude change, and thankfully, as the work continued I was able to let go of my desire to prove myself (I think a large part of this was just wanting to feel useful - the day before we had had two students come to the center and I felt like I had wasted my entire day; so the idea of actually working was very appealing).

I ended up switching jobs after lunch though. There really were too many people at our site and one of the other crews needed another person. So I spent the afternoon with eastside volunteers Sam and Ellen, along with Dana and Allen. It was fun working with them all. And oddly enough, I really enjoyed the work (and had a much better attitude). We were working on a trailer that had been flooded, so all of the underpinning and insulation needed to be taken off before it molded. The woman we were working for had eight cats and a pet opossum. Now, as some of you may know, I hate cats. I am allergic and I, frankly, think they are evil little creatures. The ground underneath the trailer was basically a litter box for the cats. Dana and Allen did the majority of the crawling around underneath the trailer, and both were decently covered in cat feces. At first, all I was doing was piling the insulation, but then someone tossed me a knife, and I crawled under and cleared the majority of one corner. Needless to say, a shower that night was wonderful.

Despite the somewhat disgusting nature of the work, it felt great to know that I had done something to help this woman. It didn't really matter that I was dirty, sweaty, and covered in crap - all in all it was a good day.

As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't all work - there was some time for play. We had the evenings off, so after dinner we found fun things to do. Friday night we went to the movies. It was amusing because we split up into three groups: one group of girls went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," another group went to see "Wolverine," and another group went to see "Star Trek." The only group satisfied with their movie choice was the "Star Trek" group - which I was, happily, a part of. And it was awesome. Perhaps more on that later...

There is still a large group of volunteers working through this week in Floyd County. If you can, please continue to pray for their safety. Some of the working conditions are toxic (we were required to wear masks at almost all times) and humidity has been up. I'm sure they could also use prayers for continued strength. Please keep the victims of the floods in your prayers too. Many of them have lost everything and feel hopeless. Please pray that hope can infiltrate these communities and unite them.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers through this weekend (and always).

Blessings.

(By the way, the pictures are all from the Floyd County Times; if you click the title of this post you can read an article about the flood).

A Quick Hello to Seattle, Portland, and the I-5 Corridor

The last week has been very eventful. Most importantly, I was able to fly back home for the weekend! Minus a few setbacks, the weekend was great, and I am so thankful it worked out for me to visit the Northwest again (how I have missed it!).

Before I go any further, I just have to give a shout out to a couple of people. First to Alyssa (even though she rarely reads my blog) for picking me up from SeaTac late Thursday night, for letting me stay with you, for making me breakfast, for driving me around all day Friday, and for taking the time off work to spend time with me. It was amazing! Secondly, I need to thank my parents, who spent a total of, at least, twelve hours in the car shuttling me to and from Portland. You both are amazing and I love you both so much!!!

Basically I flew in to Seattle late Thursday night and flew back out of Seattle early Monday morning. I tried to cram seeing as many people as possible into my day on Friday - which was probably too many and not enough at the same time. But it was great to see everyone! Saturday morning my parents and I headed down to Portland, where we had dinner with my cousin and his fiancee. On Sunday my mom and I had breakfast before meeting up with my dad again and basically hitting the road once more to make it up to Seattle. And Sunday night I was able to hang out with my friend Susannah (who was also really wonderful and drove me to the airport at 4:30am). By 6:30am, I was on a plane once more and headed back to Kentucky.

A few highlights:

• Going to Cedars for lunch with four wonderful friends and enjoying some amazing Indian cuisine


• Seeing real mountains (the Appalachians aren't really mountains - they are just big hills)


• Making pies with my mom


• Standing under our blooming lilac tree and breathing in my favorite scent


• Cutting the aforesaid lilacs and packing them back to Kentucky to show a few people what lilacs are


• Kind of forgetting it was Mother's Day, and not wishing my mom a happy day until after my friend April did


• Seeing friends and family


• Flying over Mount Rainier, as it rose above a layer of clouds, as I left Seattle

It was especially nice to come out and visit, since I will probably not be in the Northwest again until September, for Jimmy and Annette's wedding.

I think I am mostly recovered from jetlag at this point, which is good, since tomorrow after dinner I am heading out to the eastside to work with CAP's Disaster Relief program as they provide services to all those who have been affected by last week's floods. For those of you not following the news, there are currently thousands of Kentuckians who are either displaced or suffering from grave water damage. In nearby Madison County, there are others who have been affected by an F-3 tornado. If you can, please keep Kentucky in your prayers right now. There has been a lot of damage and many people have lost everything. I will be out east Thursday night to Saturday night. Please pray, too, for the safety of our crews (Disaster Relief is, for now, working this Thursday through next Saturday).

Peace.

Derby Day

What is the one thing that (almost) everyone associates with the state of Kentucky? The Kentucky Derby, of course!

Well, yesterday was Derby Day, and it was quite an experience. To preface my stories from the day, I should make mention of the fact that this is the one event that I have been pretty set on attending since I moved to Kentucky. I was not about to spend a year here and not attend the biggest, and most famous, event the state has to offer. That would just be crazy! And not only did I plan to attend the Derby, but I planned to do the Derby right. This meant a hat and a dress.

Anyway, yesterday morning I woke up to rain and a forecast for rain all day. Not exactly the forecast I was hoping for, since the Derby is an uncovered, outdoor event. We ended up having a little powwow in our house because a few people were concerned about the weather. Despite my love for the Northwest, I do not enjoy spending a day outside in the soaking rain, but I also was not about to miss the Derby because of the rain - especially since we all know that weathermen are never 100% accurate in their forecasts. Thankfully, we eventually got everyone on board for attending the Derby and Kim, Jenny, Jenna, Sam, Dana, Allen, and I set out for Louisville.

My Hat:

On Thursday Jenny, Jenna, and I headed up to Lexington in search of Derby hats, and were successful in finding hats that were not too expensive. My hat was plain, but I knew that I would jazz it up a bit - which I did. After the powwow yesterday morning, I made a mad dash to the local 5&10 store to pick up some ribbon to trim my hat (a creative venture, I might add, I have never had to undertake before). When I returned to my house, I quickly tied my bow and got the ribbons arranged on my hat how I wanted them - all in probably less than five minutes (feel free to be really impressed with my amazing skill).

Onward to the Derby:

As we made the drive toward Louisville, we were slowly leaving the pouring rain behind us - which was quite the blessing, since we didn't really see the rain again for the rest of the day. When we neared Churchill Downs we started looking around for parking. Most of the people in the neighborhood we offering up their yards and driveways for paid parking, making the streets crowded with people waving their cardboard "Parking" signs. The more humorous of these signs were the ones that said "Safe Parking" - let's just say there was nothing about those signs that inspired visions of safety. Oddly enough, when we turned off the main street by one block, there was plenty of available free street parking, and it was only a few blocks walk to the gate.

Bring Cash:

After watching half of our group walk through the gates after only ten minutes in line, I resolved that I will bring cash to all major events that I attend from now on. Sam, Jenna, and I spent five minutes in the credit card line before walking down the block to a bank, where we stood in an ATM line for about forty minutes (this line was shorter though). Eventually, however, we had cash in our hands and were able to walk through the gates of the infield: we had officially made it to the Derby!

Mint Juleps:

For those unfamiliar with the Kentucky Derby, the traditional Derby drink is a mint julep. A mint julep is basically a glass filled with crushed ice, bourbon, and a sprig of mint. If you don't like the taste of alcohol, you would not like this drink. And even if you do like the taste of alcohol, you may not like this drink; only three of us, out of our group of seven, liked them. But, hey, it was all part of the experience. And our drinks came in official Derby glasses, which we all kept.

My First Bet:

Since Derby Day, for me, was all about the experience, I wanted to go all out. This included placing a bet on a horse - which actually was my first time ever gambling on anything. I put $5 on horse #9, Zambezi Sun, in the tenth race. Unfortunately, he lost. But it was still pretty fun cheering him on. I had a quasi-My Fair Lady moment during the race, and was very sad that I could not find a horse that had "Dover" as part of the name, so I could not shout out "Come on Dover, move your blooming arse!" Sigh.

The Actual Derby:

After waiting for hours, the actual Derby race finally arrived. We had a position on the side of the track (I believe we were at turn #2) so we could watch as they rushed past us. This race turned out to be quite the upset. For starters, the favored horse scratched earlier that day. The horse that won, Mine that Bird, had odds of 50-1 - not exactly the numbers that scream "Here's a winner!" His odds were the second worst of all winning horses in 135 years of Derby history (the worst odds being 94.5-1 in 1913). Not only did this horse win, but he won with 6 3/4 lengths between him and the next horse. Needless to say, all of us wished that we had bet on him: a $10 bet would have earned $500!

Exiting:

Probably the worst part of the whole day for me was trying to exit the infield. I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but the infield has a very odd mix of patrons. You have a portion of people there who are there because it is a social event, and then you have a whole other crowd of people who are there to get really smashed (some newscasters were comparing it to Mardi Gras). Regardless of your reason for attending, however, everyone in the infield has to exit through one tunnel. After the Derby race was over, thousands of people started rushing for the tunnel, so we spent the better part of an hour being crushed in the middle of a sea of people trying to get out. It's a good thing I am not claustrophobic; although I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the time we finally made it out of there.

All in all,the experience was a very positive and fun one. The rain held off all day and the temperature hovered around sixty degrees, so we never got too cold. The people watching in itself was entertainment enough for the day, although we never saw any of the celebrities who were there. There were definitely hats galore - hats of all shapes, colors, and sizes - worn by both women and men.

Today we had a sort of Derby "after party." Jenny made "Hot Browns" (a kind of open-faced turkey sandwich) and "Derby Pie" (similar to pecan pie) for lunch. Apparently these are the traditional Derby foods, but since we were actually at the Derby yesterday (and too poor to buy food there) we had to wait to have our Derby foods.

Now if only I can think of more excuses to wear my hat...

Sam and I were the only brave ones in our group to wear dresses and hats!

Kim took a picture of the rest of us with our Mint Juleps. Too bad only Sam, Allen, and I liked them.

See that little yellow spot? That is a jockey on a horse...although I'm not sure which horse.

Waspers

One of the fun parts of living in a new place is picking up local terms and phrases. For instance, locals often say some variation of "Lord have mercy" when they are a little overwhelmed or flabbergasted; most often that variation is "Lawdy mercy."

Another such colloquialism is the phrase "wasper." A wasper is a wasp. But nobody here calls them wasps - they are waspers.

Last week, I was helping a student work on a crossword puzzle in one of our educational newspapers. The word was four letters long and the hint was, "a bug that stings." She immediately thought of a wasp, but when she tried to fill it in she could not figure out how to make the "er" fit. (Don't worry, we got it figured out)

With all of the beautiful weather we have been having, all the bees and wasps are out - and a couple of them keep finding their way into the classroom. A little known fact about me is that I have never been stung by a bee or a wasp, so I get a little nervous when they are around. Thankfully, there is usually someone else around to kill them (as they maliciously laugh at me, of course - the person, not the wasper). Oh well, I can take it. I just hope my sting-free streak continues and that the waspers leave me alone!

My Promotion

I have been asked many times in the last few weeks whether or not it is actually possible to promote a volunteer, but alas, it is possible - and not only possible but now a reality. Okay, so it isn't really that bad, but I am nervous.

Backstory: This relates, once again, to the drama concerning the closing of Adult Ed. When we found out we were going to stay open until the end of our grant, we had enough money left in the grant to cover three salaries: Jennifer, Judy, and Janet. Their jobs, however, will be terminated at the end of June. Anyway, Janet applied to another position in CAP and got it - which is great! Unfortunately, they wanted her to join their program as soon as possible. We found out all this news about a week and a half ago. With Janet leaving, I am now the only full-time instructor left, which means - you got it - I am the new head teacher (Believe me, I have already asked my manager if she is crazy).

So, yeah. Today was my first day. I don't know if it was good or bad, but not many students showed up, so I spent the majority of my day making preparations for dinner tonight. It was a beautiful eighty degree day here, so I don't blame students for not coming to class (I was jealous that I could not sneak away myself).

I suppose when it comes down to it, I know that I will do fine. I have Jennifer and Judy there with me to offer support, experience, and advice. Duane extended to the middle of June to help share classroom responsibilities, and Paul is still around two days a week. Janet, too, will continue to serve a few hours each week with Adult Ed to help with the transition, so I will not be alone. And as Jenna said during devotion tonight, God does not give us more than we can handle (We were more specifically discussing how each of us relates to crises, and Jenna gave the example that she is usually absent from them - still a wise thing to remember though).

So I guess I just need to have faith and remember that things will work out. They usually do.

Of course now my new nickname at work is the "Boss-lady." But I suppose I've been called worse.

Peace.

Oh, and the picture is not related, but I just wanted to share how beautiful Kentucky is.

Earth Day!

I can't say that all of my Earth Days are eventful, but this one sure was. It was one of those days where I was constantly running from one thing to the next, but it all worked out okay, so that is good.

To start, yesterday morning Sister Therese and I were testing two of our ladies from the jail who were trying to earn their Kentucky Employability Certificates. Normally this goes pretty smoothly. Not so yesterday. For starters, I started setting up and a woman comes in and asks if I'm there for the development meeting...bad sign. Apparently they had double booked the room. Luckily, however, we were able to switch rooms pretty easily. Mishap number two: the internet did not feel like picking up - which is unfortunate since it is an internet based test. After fifteen minutes of trying everything I could I finally got them working and the tests went fairly smoothly. We had one pass, and thankfully the one who did not pass is still motivated to keep trying to get it.

After the tests were over, I had to head back to the classroom in order to lead a field trip. Our field trip was in honor of Earth Day. At the Kentucky Artisan Center, located in Berea, there was a paper making demonstration all day. I guess last year they took a field trip there and those who went really enjoyed themselves, so we went again. It was pretty fun, and a nice break for the day. Four of us went and we each left with a sheet of paper that we made. Our paper is very Kentuckian too - it is complete with real Kentucky bluegrass. After we made our paper we wandered around the center - there were a lot of amazing crafts available there (although some were a little ridiculous. For example, there was a five foot metal sculpture of a rose bush that cost $4,000 - eek!).

I didn't stick around work too long after I got back from the field trip; Paul needed to get home to start cooking and I needed to head home to change for my race.

Yes, I did just say race. I ran in a twilight 5K race last night. For those of you who don't remember, I ran my first race (a 6K) back in early December. I spent the month of November training for my race and I came out with a time of 41:26. Let's just say I was not as prepared this time. I basically had not run since the first week of February until Monday night...so I was more than a little worried about how this race would go. Especially when I found out that Allen was running too! Allen has basically been running since he was eight years old, so obviously I can't compare my running to his, but I also didn't want him to see that his girlfriend was the worst runner there. (Luckily that wasn't true!)

As we walked to the starting line, I kept asking myself, "Why am I doing this?" I was fully prepared to make a fool of myself and to, possibly, die trying (okay, so I get a little dramatic when it comes to running). I took off running, but I was not sure how long I would make it without needing to walk. I made it a mile. About this point my manager's fourteen year old daughter passed me. It was also about this point that I noticed Allen heading back the other way. I was not about to let him pass me walking, so I started running again and caught up with Cheyenne - who ended up being a good running partner. We were able to push each other the rest of the race and keep one another going.

Anyway, prior to the race I had been told that the course was flat. Yeah, not so much. There was one big, long hill you had to run up to get to the turn-around point. We made it up and down, but it definitely hurt!

When we reached the last mile marker I saw Allen coming back again. Honestly, my first reaction was probably a little disgruntled ("He already finished and came back, and I am still a mile off?"), but he gave me a hug (while running) and I realized that he had come back to run with me and to encourage me because he knew that I was not feeling great about it. And who can be upset by that? With him there I was definitely more motivated to keep running - even though my legs and lungs were screaming that I needed to walk, I kept running. Just before the last bend, Cheyenne pulled ahead of me, but when that finish line came into view I took off sprinting and just barely passed her. I came in with a time about 35 minutes. I made it!

It turns out that not only had Allen finished, but he had won! He came in first place with a time around 20 minutes. Yong followed close behind with fourth place, and Kelly and Jenny came in a few minutes after him. Kim and Jenna were also both ahead of me. Duane, our walker, pulled up the rear for our team, but he did great too!

We had registered as a group from CAP (it was cheaper), so technically our times were being averaged together against other groups, rather than going into the pool for our age groups (something we didn't know ahead of time and a few of our more competitive runners were upset by this). Allen's win still counted for him though. And even though we couldn't place as individuals, Team CAP came in first place! (it helps to have two people in the top five on your team). So hey, I kinda sorta won a race!


Despite the fact that I am really sore today, I am very glad that I ran last night. I had a fun time with my friends and I was able to really push myself (with some help). I was very shocked that my time was on par with my last time, even with a two month break, but hey, I'm not complaining. I guess this means that I'll have to keep pushing myself...

To top it all off, my cousin Jimmy called to tell me he is engaged! Congrats!

And that was my crazy Earth Day.
Blessings.