A Million parachutes

I forgot to add this in my last post...Some project people had lyrics from a song by Sixpence None the Richer in their profiles recently. The chorus is so perfect!! It goes:

I miss the warm
I miss the sun
I miss the ocean
I miss everyone
I miss the bridges that span across the bay
Tonight it seems like ages ago

If that doesn't scream SDSP, I don't know what does. Makes me think of the warm sun on the beach. Makes me think of the laughs as well as conversations with my friends. It makes me think of days we would drive in Shawn's convertible across the long bridge over the bay that led to Coronado Island. It does seem like ages ago...so true. If only I could hit rewind. Anyway, just thought I'd share that! :)

Fall Getaway...& other things

Well, Fall Getaway was this past weekend. It feels so good to not have to plan the rides for it anymore! But we'll be starting up planning for TCX next week...although this is something that's already planned and we only need to find rides for 50 people instead of 200! Anyway, FG was amazing. Shannon pointed out the other day that I use that word a lot...so I'm using it again! I had a great time hanging with my fellow senior women (and 1 junior!! :P)...I wish I could see them more often than once a week at Primetime. The speaker we had was really good. He talked about being a community alive in power, holiness, brokenness, and faith. Saturday night was the talk on brokenness and he gave everyone the opportunity to publicly confess sin that has been holding them back or dragging them down. I was really surprised at the number of people that got up and confessed their deepest secrets. But it was so freeing for people. They were able to get things out in the open and then pray with their friends. I went back and prayed with a girl that I went to high school with (she's a year younger that me) and was in my bible study last year. After we prayed, she told me that I had a huge impact in her life last year as her bible study leader. She told me that she was going through some depression last year and it helped a lot being in my bible study. I had no idea! She's thanked me for what I've done and I told her that I feel like I haven't even done anything! It's so crazy how God can use you in subtle ways, like how you live your life, to impact others. I've never seen the way I live my life have a direct impact on someone's life, so it was really encouraging to hear that my life had. Praise God!! It really makes me want to wear my faith on my sleeve and live a life that causes people to ask questions or be impacted just by being able to see my love and passion for God. Anyway, I can't really pinpoint any other major lessons I learned this weekend at FG. I think it was just a very refreshing and relaxing weekend and something I really needed. The week leading up to FG was so busy with both school and planning FG stuff that I hardly spent time with the Lord all week. I felt so disconnected and hated that I hadn't spent quality time with God, so FG was just what I needed to get me back on track and refreshed.

So, I just have to say...PROJECT REUNION IS IN 10 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited?!?! I CAN'T WAIT to see everyone from project again! I miss them so much it hurts. The weekend is going to go by way too fast and I'm not going to want to leave them, but it's worth it to see everyone for a couple days. I'm actually going down to St. Louis a day early with my UW girls, so I'll get to see the Missouri people early! :D Project has been on my mind quite a bit lately (haha what's new with that?!)...today we got the letters we wrote ourselves at the end of project in the mail. It was cool to read where I was at at the end of project and where I wanted myself to be in October. Sadly, I haven't accomplished everything I had hoped to, but it served as good encouragement. Also, last Thursday we were all on The Price Is Right!!!! It was so fun to see everyone in the audience and relive that day! Of course, seeing everyone made me miss them even more, but it was fun. I was on TV about 4 times because I was sitting in the front row on the far left aisle!! :)

Well, I think that's about it. Practicum has been going well. I love teaching!!!! It's so fun to get up and teach the lessons we write and see the work the kids do! We're getting observed on Friday, so pray it goes well! :)

My life has been consumed...

Well, I started practicum last week. I was placed in a 3rd grade classroom with a girl from my cohort. I was a little nervous about being with 3rd graders, but they're great! The class has 23 kids, and they're a lot of fun. They all have incredible imaginations and are all very smart. They get to free write every day, and then on Thursdays they share the stories they decided to publish (i.e. make a final copy and illustrate). I got to listen to their stories last Thursday and they were so good! The vocabulary they used was amazing! I really look forward to the things they'll be making and writing for our lessons. Jessi (my partner) and I will pretty much be in charge of the language arts time on Thursdays and Fridays for a while. We're doing a unit on fairy tales and we'll be looking at the different versions of Cinderella from other countries. I'm excited to start teaching! :) Our cooperating teacher is so awesome too. She's in her last year of teaching before retiring and she's already been so helpful! She's just a wealth of knowledge and shares everything she knows and does with us. I think I will learn so much from her this semester! It's nice because she's letting us plan our lessons, but she gives us input and ideas, as well as so many resources for us to use.

The other thing that's taken over my life lately has been SPEV team stuff. Fall Getaway is next weekend, so we're are franticly getting things together. My roommate Julie and I are in charge of putting together the rides list, and boy is that a project!! We have some people set up with rides, but the bad news is that we have about 65 people that are without a ride! Julie and I are kinda freaking out and I'm just praying that it'll all work out. We also are working on a little something for the senior guys (shh!), but that's been quite a task in itself. More time consuming than we were expecting, but it's worth it. :)

That's about it...just FG and school have been consuming my life recently. It'll be nice once FG planning is over and we can just enjoy it!! :D

P.S...Watch SDSP '05 on The Price Is Right on Thursday (the 13th)!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend

So, last Saturday my cousin Ryan got married. I had to work at the football game, so I missed the actual wedding (I've been invited to so many recently, but haven't been able to make it to any!!), but I was able to drive down for the reception. It was so great to see my family! I was able to tell my family about my summer and show them my pictures (made me miss it again, though!!), so that was cool. And my aunt, uncle, and cousins that live way up in northern Wisco and who I hardly ever get to see (every couple of years if we're lucky) were able to come down for the wedding!! I decided to spend the night so I had more time to spend with them (especially my cousins that are my age) and it was so much fun! I shared a room at my aunt and uncle's house with my cousin Heather (she's a year older than me) and my cousin Jonathan (3 years older than me) used the room right next door. Heather, Jonathan and I stayed up until like 1:30 am just talking...it was so great. They're both strong Christians (my whole dad's side of the family is) and we had a really good conversation - mostly about relationships, seeking God, and whatnot. It reminded me a bit of the community I experienced this summer so it was really great to have a taste of that again. We got on the subject of relationships because my cousin Jonathan is dating a girl from Missouri and is just head over heels for her. They are constantly on the phone or text messaging each other and he can't stop talking about her. It's his first serious girlfriend, so he's still in the infatuation stage (they've been dating a month). But it was just really cute to see him light up when he talked about her. Jonathan is one of those guys that, if he weren't my cousin, I would want to date him. He's such a great guy who loves the Lord a lot, so I'm really happy that he found someone. Made me really wish I had that though. :-/ In God's perfect timing...

That's about all I did this weekend. Work went well (minus the computers deciding to completely crash on us...luckily my partner and I were smart and wrote everything down! Oh yeah, and I spilled a drink on an old lady! Whoops!) and I made some decent tips. I enjoy my job, but it's a lot of work and can be stressful and I've recently found that it's conflicted with a lot of things I want to do (such as my cousin's wedding last weekend and my friend Bethany's wedding in 3 weeks). Part of me really wants to get student season tickets next year since it'll be my last year as a student, so we'll see if I can afford to do that.

I start Practicum this week and Jessi (my partner) and I met our cooperating teacher today! She's is SO nice and I think I will learn so much from her! She's already given us some resources to start writing lessons with, and we'll have an hour each morning we're there where we can plan with her while the kids are in their specials (music, gym, etc.). And she said that the class this year is really great and loves to learn! I'm so excited to meet the kids and start teaching and working with them!!! :D

Well, I need to work on my loads of homework! Yuck!