Currently Listening Under the Iron Sea By Keane Thanks, Serge! see related

Phew. It's been a loooooong time since I updated last.  Months and months, it seems like!!!!  A lot has happened......my internship just ended on Friday, which is just so weird to me.  I wasn't ready for it to be over.  Matty B (my awesome boss) threw Jesse and me a little going-away shindig  tonight at youth group, since I am leaving bright and early tomorrow morning (5 am) to drive up to our new house in Rome.  It was really, really hard to say goodbye to everyone! God has used all these kids to bless me so much this summer, and I have learned a lot and have been challenged a lot and have made some deep and lasting friendships.  It has been such a cool experience.   A lot of you will know how hard it was for me to decide on doing this internship this summer - for a while I really didn't think this was something I wanted to do or something that God wanted me to do.  But it has been the best summer!

Is it just me, or has the summer flown by? Granted, we still have a few weeks before classes start back at CovCov, but I am NOT READY TO GO BACK YET.  It will be great to see everyone again, but I'm still not mentally ready to live in a dorm room again and be away from my family again and start thinking academically again.  Ummmm.....no thanks.  Maybe in a few months, but not right now!

Currently Reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West By Gregory Maguire see related

Wow! It was quite fun to go onto Xanga for the first time in like a week and read everyone's posts. Sounds like everyone is having an awesome summer!

My week has been craaaaazy.  Like, non stop.  My parents got back last Saturday, we moved into the new house we're staying in in the Cape, and my mom promptly got sick for three days.  Not fun. 

Meanwhile, I:

1) Led youth group with Jesse for the first time ever  (Matt's been gone all week....he's directing the camp at Ridgehaven).

2) Went ice skating for the first time ever with my dear friend Irene (I didn't fall once!)

3) Went to a bachelorette party for my old friend Beth Valkenburg (James's older sister, for those of you who know James up at Covenant)

4) Led my first two small groups, one for the 9th-10th grade girls and the other for the 6th-7th grade girls

5) Went to Beth and Jeremiah's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (the wedding's tomorrow)

6) Watched the entire first season of Grey's Anatomy with my mom (amazingly, she loves the show)

7) Had a "Fun Day" with the youth group....we watched a movie and played Mafia. It was fun!

Phew! Now, I have to rush home because I have two wonderful 6th graders coming over to swim and watch a girly movie!

Currently Reading Improving Your Serve (Contemporary Classics) By Charles R. Swindoll see related

So......here's my first official post of the summer.  Prepare yourselves, everyone: it's gonna be a big one.

So the final episode ever of Alias aired last night.  In typical fashion, we had a blowout party at the Johns house.  To mourn the fact that our favorite show was ending, we all wore black.  It was a terrific act of solidarity, I thought!  To emphasize our eternal loathing of Sloane, we periodically shot Nerf darts at him on the screen.  Christy is a surprisingly good shot, and we all cheered each time she nailed his face. :)  When the show was over, we took a photocopied photo of Sloane and burned it in the fireplace.  It was a little twisted, I know, but we all got a kick out of it!

So the finale was AMAZING. I mean, really amazing! There were so many references to past seasons, and almost every one of the old school Alias vets made appearances - Sarkypoo, Francie, Irina, Carrie, and of course Vaughn.  They brought back the floating red ball from the first episode ever, which I thought was pretty darn cool. And they used the same little girl to play Sydney as a child that they used in season 2.  It was absolutely the perfect way to end the show. My only problem was that they killed off one of my favorite characters - in my opinion, one of the coolest and most complex characters on television.  But at least he died a total hero and prevented Sloane (I mean Rambaldi) from taking over the world!

I realize that anyone who reads this blog either a) are fans of Alias and thus already know all of this, or b) are not fans of Alias and this couldn't care less.  But oh well - I needed to type all this out.  You know, catharsis. =)

Okay, so.....on to the next subject.  My new job! I am the girls' youth intern at my church for the summer.  I started yesterday and I think I'm going to really love it.  I'm working for Matt Bennett, who's the youth pastor at EPC.  Jesse Dickinson, a Covenant student who lives on Ghetto, is the guys' intern.  I am just starting to get to know both of them and I really like working with them.  I'm praying it will be a great summer.  I'll be helping with the different youth events we have going on, leading a small group for some of the junior high girls, and just forming relationships with the kids.  I'm really excited, but I know it's going to be a huge challenge so please pray for me!

Hmmmm....what else.....Zach flew back from Haiti last week, and it's been great having him here.  We drove up to Orlando on Saturday and went to Islands of Adventure.  It was awesome! I'm not as much of a roller coaster girl as I used to be, but I went on the water rides and some of the other milder rides and had a BLAST!!!! It was fun!

Okay, so I think I'm gonna sign off now....I'm hungry and there's spaghetti and brownies to be eaten and American Idol to be watched! I love you guys and hope you're having a great summer!