So my parents left today for a few days.

Here is the dinner schedule for the week:
Monday - Chicken Pot Pie
Tuesday - Luke's Baked Chicken
Wednesday - Pizza or Stromboli or both
Thursday - Leftovers

Okay that is as far as we have planned so far.
Yeah, Luke cooks! Isn't it great?!?

For Lunch there is:
Fried Chicken
Chicken Salad
Tacos
Lunchmeat

Come over and visit!
*cough cough* Hayley or Rachel.
And when you come bring Hayley's computer. :)

I love summer for the fresh fruit!
Today I brought
peaches,
plums,
a apple,
a banana,
and some blueberries to work with me!

Hooray!

Thank you

for understanding, even when I don't understand
and listening, even when I don't listen
and talking, when I refuse to talk
and making sense, even when I'm speaking nonsense
and being patient, when I want to know now
and not getting mad, when I am a fool
and smiling, even though I'm not smiling back!



It makes me appreciate the love of God even more when you see love in action. It is amazing to think how much God must love us. I think, oh yeah, God loves me I have heard it before. But, WOW, I stop and think what that means for a while. It blows my mind how great that love is and I complain about the silly little things. God, help me.
I know it is repeated over and over again, but I am going to quote it here.

1 Corinthians 13:5- 7
(Love) " is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails!"

Meet the toprunners for my new laptop and backpack. The laptop is to get me through the next two years. I think this one will do the trick. The backpack I have been admiring for a while. I just needed to talk myself into buying it and since the computer is actually going to be cheaper then I thought (because it is on sale!!!) I figured I could splurge on the backpack. That isn't the best picture of it, but I can't get to shrink. Oh well. It is awesome!! I might get the black and gray one instead of the red and black one. I haven't decided yet. But anyways, there they are. My next paycheck and probably part of the next one is going to these. But I am getting an awesome backpack!!! LOVE it.

Let's see if this works.
Photos from Mississippi.

I remembered today how much I...

love coldplay

goal in life
see them in concert!

I love this picture!
Emma is so beautiful.
See more of Annie's photos.

Going Away Stephanie Party
Saturday Afternoon 4:00

Dinner is at 6

Bring a SIDE or a dessert or BOTH
July 29, 2006
My House

If I fail to call you, RSVP to me anyhow.
We are going to try to start calling people tomorrow.
I may not get all of you.

PLEASE Come let Stef know how much you love her!!!

I'll let you know what you need to bring a bit later.
I just found out she is leaving Monday.

Proverbs 24:10
"If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!"

Psalms 54:4
"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."

Psalms 55:22
"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."

I've been thinking a lot lately (not that I don't normally think a lot. I can never get my brain to stop thinking. It is rather annoying at night when I am trying to sleep and I can't turn my brain off. It is even sometimes annoying how it won't stop asking questions during the day. I wonder too much sometimes for my own good, but anyhow). What have I been thinking about? John 15 - the passage about the vine and the branches. I can't imagine that it feels very comfortable to be pruned. But yet so often all I want is to be comfortable. I don't want things to go "wrong" (but do things really ever go wrong when they are all part of God's plan). Things go wrong from our perspective, but if we believe that God has everything under his soverign control, then nothing goes wrong. Things may mess up our plans, but they are never a suprise to God. Sometimes I think God let's our plans fail or changes them so that we don't rely so much on ourselves.
As we saw this week in Mississippi, the winds and rain come and blow down houses that are not built on solid foundations. I wonder what my foundation is built on. So often I start to build on the things that I know and the things that I can do. But I need to step back and look at the one that gave all for me. I need to stop complaining when life starts to hurt and I need to be thankful for the times that life is roughest because I know in those times I am becoming more like Christ. It hurts to have the things that we love cut away from us so that we grow up in Christ. Remeber the end result! Praise God for caring enough to make us more like him, even when it hurts. Let us run the race with confidence. May I rely on God for my strengh and continually see that I have know of my own.

1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
17This is my command: Love each other.

What If I Give All
Ray Boltz

He heard the preacher say
A single dime can feed
A hungry boy or girl
With nothing to eat
So he pulled a dollar from the pocket of his jeans
And he asked his mama how many will this feed
She just smiled and when she told him ten
He reached back in again

Chorus:
What if I give all I have
What will that gift do
My child a gift like that could change the world
It could feed a multitude
He didn't close his eyes or turn away
I can see him standing tall
He saw the need and I can hear him say
What if I give all

Three birthday dollars could have bought a special toy
But he reminds me of another little boy
Who gave to Jesus a gift of fish and bread
I wonder if he said

Repeat chorus

And long ago a father and a son
Saw the children lost in sin
Can you see the tears in Father's eyes
As Jesus says to him

What if I give all I have
What will that gift do
My Son that gift will change the world
It will free the multitudes

What if I give all I have
What will that gift do
My child a gift like that can change the world
It could feed a multitude
We cannot close our eyes and turn away
When we hear His Spirit call
We see the need now let Him hear us say
What if I give all
What if I give all

Third Day
"Wherever You Are"
w/ the David Crowder Band

Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wicomico Youth and Civic Center
Salisbury, MD

I love third day!
My last class on Thursday ends at 5 and my first class on Friday isn't until 1pm.
Buy me a ticket! I am coming home for this one.
Or I might go to the next concert in B-more the next day.
That would probably be smarter. But not as fun because all my dear friends wouldn't be there with me.
Hmmmm.

another meeting
walking to ice cream
our house
dutch blitz
bridge club
luggage and me
me
bathroom sinks
bathrooms
sleeping

and when we traveled home....
here are a few things we did to keep busy:
EAT Stop for lunch - Rory and Emma at Arby's (we pretty much ate at every fast food resturant that exists)
stretching the legs
sleeping
Buying more candy to eat
Switch from the bus to the truck!!!
Even though she doesn't look that happy about the switch, believe me, it was much better. I rode the second half of the first day back in the truck. Comfort!

Check on wedding photos! Mr. Ingersoll has internet in his truck! EAT again! Cracker Barrel! By this point, I was so sick of eating at fast food.
Play cards with John and Josh.

This looks a lot worse in person. I fell off the porch and landed on a sheet of plywood. PAIN.

Please be patient. I am working on getting pictures posted. But I have work to do too.

Wednesday was an ordinary work day for the first half of the day and then ate on the way back to camp and took showers and left for New Orleans. I wasn't really in the mood to go there, but I wanted to say that I had been, so I went. Plus, everyone else was going (isn't that a great excuse). It took quite a while to find a parking space. Then we spilt into five groups and wandered the city. Due to lack of communication I ended up with Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Anderson, and Mr. Sherwell. It turned out to be a much more interesting and fun thrill than I expected. I was very bored and unimpressed with New Orleans. The only part that I could have wandered around for a while and looked at was the amazing old buildings. Other then that I found it very junky and crude. First we went to Cafe Something where they serve donuts with piles of powdered sugar. After visiting their creepy bathroom, we wandered around for a while (The bathroom was in the kitchen and you entered both the men's and ladies room by the same door and then there was this small waiting room while you waited for the person inside to be finished, it was rather awkward). Since no one else in my group wanted to be there we would come to a street corner and one of us would choose a direction. That was pretty neat. We saw a few musicians and entered a few junk shops and a candy shop and then we tried to find this restaurant that people have told us about, it was called Miss Sparrow's. So we would ask for directions and people would say, "oh yes, that is two blocks that way". We would go that way and not find it and then wander around some more and then ask someone else. They would say, "Yes, it is right around that corner". We would go around the corner and still not see it. So we finally asked this one woman and she practically led us right to it. The name of the restaurant was Mesperos. No wonder we had missed it so many times. We had gone by it several times. We had a good laugh about that as we sat down to dinner. Everyone I was with ordered sandwiches and I ordered the catfish platter!!! Oh yes! A whole bottle of ketchup and some tobacco sauce later I was so stuffed.
The bus ride home was so boring. I was tired. But when we got back I had to make PB and Js with Chris, Avery, Luke, and two people from grace. We all started out spreading peanut butter, until Luke ended up with peanut butter up to his elbows. Then he was just there for moral support. For some odd reason we ended up spreading the jelly on top of the peanut butter and then just sticking a piece of bread on top. I have never done that before. We were using white and wheat bread and we ended up just slapping bread together (to find out the next day when we went to eat them, that most of them were half wheat, half white - rather amusing). I have never made 72 sandwiches so fast or had so much fun doing it. I love Chris. He was a pleasure to work with and Avery and Luke are a blast too. I don't think I could have chosen a better team that I would have been so surprised to have fun with. I was so tired after this that I went to my room and fell into bed and slept soundly (even with the sub light). Wednesday was my best night of sleep even though I was probably in the worst mood. I hit full tiredness this night, even though we had a half day. I think I was more mentally tired and that makes it easier to go to sleep because your brain can't think about things if it is too tired to.

Monday, Tuesday, and the first half of Wednesday went about the same.
Each morning I woke up around 5:15, but stayed in bed until 5:50 or so and walked over to the bathroom, which was in the main building where we had our meetings and meals. I would walk over their, with my towel, soap, toothpaste, and toothbrush, and bush my teeth and wash my face. I would wander back to the bunk house, where practically no one else was awake yet, and quietly slip out of my shorts and into my pants for the day. I would put on my boots and walk over to the main building to see who else was up. Some of the guys would be up, Mr. Conley, Mr. Conard, Luke, Jared, Josh, my dad... They'd be sitting around drinking coffee or looking over plans or running some change by Mr. Franklin. So we'd all sit there all tired eyed and hungry (I have never been so hungry for a whole week - I was starving all the time and I ate so much food). Around 6:30 they would let you start eating breakfast, oatmeal, grits, apples, sometimes bagels, sometimes English muffins, sometimes oranges, we had pancakes one morning. I'd finish breakfast around 7:00ish and talk to the few people that wandered in that early. I'd go fill my water jug up and grab my backpack and head out to the bus. We'd leave around 7:45 each morning and call roll and drive to the site. When we got to the site we would unload the bus and carry everything into the house or around in and start setting up the saws and water coolers and ladders. Mr. Ingersoll would arrive a bit later and give us job assignments if we hadn't finished our job from before.
Monday was a bit different then the other days because when we got to the house we were supposed to start by roofing the house. So we were in shock when we got there and the whole front didn't have rafters and we were missing some side walls and other little things that needed to be finished first. So Monday was a crazy day shuffling around and getting in the rhythm of how the week would go. I picked up trash for the first part of the day, traced rafters with Ryan, cut rafters with Chris, climbed rafters with Jared and Ryan, and other random jobs.
Tuesday was my favorite day because I got to work with Anna, Anna, and Luke building walls upstairs! Woohoo. I love building walls. Great fun. Although, it does get sort of confusing while working with two people with the same name. HA. I was forever saying Anna please do that, or Anna do this and then having to clarify. But it was fun and I was quite proud of my walls. :)
Everyday we had PB and J for lunch and sometimes they would throw in a pack of crackers or a bag of chips. I grew to love peanut butter and jelly, even when they were made the night before with apple jelly and creamy peanut butter and the jelly had all soaked through the bread and it was on white bread. It still tasted great. :)
Each night we would pack up and come back around 5 or 5:30 and wait in line for the shower. Then we would get in line for dinner around six. The first two nights I ate dinner at the camp. We had lasagna and some weird chicken stir-fry dish. Normally, I wouldn't have thought that either tasted good, but I was so hungry and they only let you have so much, that I enjoyed every bite that I took.
After dinner we would have a meeting and go over what had happened that day and how everyone was doing and what we had learned. Then it was off to play games, get ready for bed, and try to go to sleep in our submarine.

Sunday Morning we had breakfast at Ridge Haven at 7:15, packed up, and headed out down 16 miles of winding mountain roads at 8:00. I talked to Mrs. Franklin the whole way down the mountain, riding backwards. Then I slept and read and played games with the people around me. Mr. Sherwell did a devotion and prayed. We watched another few movies and I tried to ignore them as much as possible. We stopped for lunch in Alabama. So far we had been through, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Sarah, Luke, Rachel, Bethany, and I went to KFC. On Sunday we all wore our light blue shirts and it wasn't until we got off the bus to walk to lunch when we all started thinking how weird that must look. Most groups that we met on the way down there had gray or white t-shirts (things that blend in). We all wore blue. haha. It was a funny picture. I like the shirts. Then we walked back to the bus and did more of the same boring stuff to pass the time. Linnea read to me for a while. I was totally missing my Steffy by this point. Sunday Evening we finally got to our camp and we had ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. The Church there is called Lagniappe.

Lagniappe - a small gift given a customer by a merchant at
the time of a purchase, such as a 13th beignet when buying a dozen, or more
broadly something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure; a
bonus. The word is used in Trinidad and Tobago, Louisiana, Mississippi and
south-eastern Texas. It was also once in common usage by antiquarian
booksellers, without regional limitation, and is still used by more
old-fashioned members of that tribe. It is derived from the American Spanish
phrase la ñapa (la, "the"; ñapa a variant of yapa, "something that is added").
The term has been traced back to the Quechua word yapay (which means "to
increase; to add"). In Andean markets it is still customary to ask for a "yapa"
when making a purchase. The seller usually responds by throwing in a little
extra.

I thought that was a pretty neat name for a church. You can visit their blog or website or interns blog at these links.
Lagniappe Church
Lagniappe Church blog
Lagniappe Intern’s blog

We had orientation, watched a movie, I took a shower, had another meeting (this time with the goup), and went to bed. The first night was fun, even though I felt so lost and out of place. Avery and I were on the top of the bunk beds right my the back door and this exit sign lit up the whole room. I started to cover it up, but I was told that it was a against fire code and if there was a fire we would need it. So once the lights go out Avery and I started going on and on about how we felt like we were on a sub. Haha. It was bunches of fun. boop boop boo. DIVE DIVE DIVE!!! Laughing made me a lot happier then if I had sat there and been annoyed all night. It was still hard to fall asleep, but at least we could laugh at the situation.

leaving RidgeHaven in our blue shirts
riding

stopping for gas and washing the windows
Anna and Annie
Miss MaryAnnie poses in front of the Bunkhousesinside
the bunksThe red exit sign!!!
dive
dive
dive

I guess I should write a little about the last nine days.

Friday night Anna and I went to see John's all star baseball game. Mrs. Franklin and Josh taught me how to eat sunflower seeds.

Saturday morning I put all of my stuff in the van (one suitcase, a travel bag, and my pillow). My family arrived at the church third. The Taylors got there first!! Congrats guys. I was so proud of you all. The bus got there around 7:15 and we choose our seats. I made the mistake of reserving two seats so that I could sleep. This meant I had no one to talk to unless I moved around. I changed this up on the way home! Thanks to Rachie Cate for not letting me wallow in my aloneness. :) We filled the bus. There was so much stuff to pack, tools, food, clothes to work in, clothes to play in, soap, shoes, sleeping bags, fans, coolers, and much more. Everytime we unloaded the bus, I was amazed at the amount of stuff we fit. CRAZY!!!
Anyhow, we traveled down the eastern shore and I read Watership Down, slept, ate food, listened to the Newsboys, talked to Dean and Luke, ate more food, played twenty questions, watched bits and peices of movies, helped organize the ordering of lunch, ate food, complained to Dad how bored I was, talked to Mrs. Taylor and Mom, ate some of their food, drank some water. We stopped for lunch at a Walmart that had a Subway in it. Got back on the bus drove until we reached a place called Hog wild (right down the mountain from Ridgehaven).
Sunday Evening I ate dinner with Avery, Josh, Josh, Luke, Anna, and Phil (the worlds greatest bus driver!!!). They forgot our table and we were given our food after everyone else had already finished and were waiting for us. It was good pulled pork, but I really didn't have time to enjoy it. Then we arrived at RidgeHaven and I was so exguasted. But I played volleyball with Britney Deck and Anna and then a few more people joined us later on. The rest of the people played knockout and ran around and were so glad to get off the bus. No one told me there was a pool or I would have went swimming. I went back to my bunk and took a shower and climbed into bed. I forgot my shorts to sleep in in my travel bag so I slept in a towel. It was so hot in the room and the bunkbeds shook back and forth when anyone moved. Haha. What fun. I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. I finally did, but I was in a weird mood.

Ride ride ride
Sleep
Cameras
listen to music
Mountians at Ridgehaven

arriving at RidgeHaven
posing
some people stay up to play
some people to floss
others are tired and want to sleepothers fall asleep
while some play around all nighteven when the lights go out

This is our Mississippi Team's verse. I like how the message says, take nothing for granted and serve cheerfully (without grumbling says the NIV) and love one another as if your life depended on it. May we all remember this for this coming week, but not only then (it is so easy to serve when you are on a "missions trip" and yet so hard to do it daily in our lives). May we live out the gospel at all times! God, help ME not to grumble about the little things that so often pop up in my day and steal my joy. Help me find my joy and strength in you alone. My hope is in you. Thank you for life!!

1 Peter 4:7b-11 (Niv)
Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
Above all, love each other deeply,
because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,
faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.
If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides,
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever.
Amen."

1 Peter 4:7b-11 (The message)
"Take nothing for granted.
Stay wide-awake in prayer.
Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it.
Love makes up for practically anything.
Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.
Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it:
if words, let it be God's words;
if help, let it be God's hearty help.
That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time."

Well, enjoy the peace and quiet in the blogging world until I return (probably on the 24th). You'll have to depend on others for pictures because my camera broke on Monday and I haven't had a chance to replace it. I need to do that before I leave for college park. But anyhow, have a great week. I can't wait to hear stories of all the things that happen at home while we are away.

Press on towards the prize to which Christ has called us!

I've been really looking forward to Mississippi because I knew the trip down and back up wasn't going to be that bad because I got to sit and talk to Steffy. I knew even if I didn't get to work with her, I would get to talk to her and night and unwind. And I also thought, this is a great opportunity to spend one last missions trip with her because she is moving away soon.
Well, I guess God wanted me completely out of my comfort zone because she calls me today and tells me that she can't come because her grandfather is dying and her parents want her home for the funeral next week. BAM! I know it is for the best, but it is hard to swallow. This pretty much changes everything I had planned. Good thing God's plans never fail. I am grateful that He has my life planned out and that His purposes triumph over all. I trust that His plans are better than anything I can imagine. I prayed to be challenged and to be able to trust Him more. Thank God for the opportunity to serve Him.

** Please pray for the whole team going down to Mississippi (we leave Saturday - there are about 50 or us from our church and 25 from Grace in Dover).
** Pray for humility and a servant attitude in me (you can pray for everyone else too).
** Please also pray for the Hornors as they get ready to plan a funeral and they deal with the lose of a father (and grandfather).
** And remember to praise God for His amazing plan for our lives. It is amazing to be able to trust that He knows what is going on and will work it out for the God of those who love Him. Glory be to His name.

Numbers 3:10
Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to death."

Have you marveled lately that we can come freely before the throne of grace?!? I was reading numbers this week and I came upon this verse. It struck me more than ever how grateful I should be that we have Jesus, our High Priest, who has made a way for us to approach the sanctuary.

Wonder and Awe.

Couch Game Comments

"And sometimes, if you are really good, you can get five on the couch."

Elton John - Something in the way you look tonight

There was a time
I was everything and nothing all in one
When you found me
I was feeling like a cloud across the sun

I need to tell you
How you light up every second of the day
But in the moonlight
You just shine like a beacon on the bay
And I can't explain
But it's something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
It's that feeling I get about you, deep inside
And I can't describe
But it's something about the way you look tonight
Takes my breath away
The way you look tonight

With a smile
You pull the deepest secrets from my heart
In all honesty
I'm speechless and I don't know where to start

A tribute to the best car EVER made!! My 5 series 1986 silver BMW.