My First Trip to an Apple Orchard

So, Sunday afternoon Nas and the girls took me on my virgin apple orchard experience. We had a great time, pretending to be little children again. Nas' mom and one of her friends met us there, and stayed for a while. We rode the little lawn mower pulled train, went through an alphabet maze, picked some apples, and of course ate apple goodies including an apple cider slush and donut. Yumm! It was one of the last days to be outside and not cold I think, so I loved it. The only thing missing was a corn maze, I guess I will just have to go again.
It was great to be able to spend good quality time with three ladies who are like family to me.

So, Catch-up after 2 and a half months -SORRY!

Well, Lets see what I've done. I'll just tell you a little snippet of each major thing, and hope I don't miss anything.

July 18-20 I went camping with my dad's side of the family. It was fun to see cousins I haven't seen for a while, and have so many of them together for Saturday dinner. I also slept in a tent Sat night with Dave and Cherith, so that was fun. I hadn't tented it in quite awhile.

July 23-28 The whole immediate fam got together in Houston. I hadn't seen Emily since March, so it was great to see her. It was really just amazing to have all 5 of us plus Cherith together for the first time since my high school graduation. I miss my family when there is that long a space in between whole family visits. We had a great time together, went to see alligators at Brazos Bend State Park and some garden/zoo thing downtown, that I can't remember the name of.

Aug. 7 I spent part of the day with Emily in Grand Rapids as she was there for a friend's wedding, and also got to meet her boyfriend Ryder for the first and only time.
Aug. 8 On the way home from GR I stopped at Cran-Hill Ranch to see many of my friends from WI who were there to help at a youth group's retreat.

Aug. 10-16 Mission Trip to NYC! My cousin Kendra went with me to NYC on my church's mission trip. We went with the Center for Student Missions. It was a great time of experiencing different cultures, lifestyles, and missions organizations. I think my favorite part was getting to know the people in our group better, some for the first time, and really getting to know my cousin on a whole different level. It was a great time of experiencing God.

Aug 19 I started working full time at Sleepy Hollow Bookshop in Midland. I work 38-40 hours a week selling books more or less.

Aug 30-Sept 1 I spent Labor Day Weekend up at Vanderwende's condo with a bunch of old people, but had a good time relaxing, enjoying the outdoors especially the water!

Sept 16 The one year anniversary of going to DTS.

Sept 16 The first night of the young singles Bible study - Emerge- that I started. It has been going wonderfully. There are about 7 of us with potential for more. We all are really bonding and have a hard time ending. Everyone really desires more of God and want a genuine community of love and honesty. It has been a great blessing already.

I think that is all that I have done. And now, Happy October!

Week on the lake

So, on the way home from Wisconsin / visiting Grafs I stopped for a week or so at VanderWende's condo on Lake Charlevoix. It was a great weekend of being on the water, relaxing and hanging out. I got to surf behind the boat again, and play a lot with V's new, six week old grandson who was there for the week with his parents. It was great! Also got to sail a few times, so much fun. Now I am back in Midland for a while, enjoying seeing friends again.

Visiting the Grafs

On the way home I swung over to visit the Grafs from my DTS. They live in Apple Valley, MN which is near St. Paul. It was so great to see them it had been about 6 months since I had last seen them. I was able to see the house they live in now and the house they are moving to in a couple of weeks. I also went to church with them Saturday night and then Sunday to the church that they are doing childrens ministry at. On Sunday at church I was also able to send about an hour reconnecting with Levi and Kelly from my DTS too. Then Sunday afternoon we all went to the zoo, saw the animals, and flowers. Then Monday Carissa (12) and I went to the Mall of America. Then Tuesday morning I headed almost home. I drove about 11 hours and made it all the way to VanderWende's condo on Lake Charlevoix to spend the fourth of July weekend.

Graduation

On Friday we Graduated! We had a nice fancy dinner, then each of us talked a little bit about what we learned or how we changed. And then they gave us our certificates and prayed for us and we were free! It was a bittersweet night. It was good to be done and good to be heading home. But, it was really hard to say goodbye to all the people here, especially the students. We became really close and will really miss each other. I love you guys!!

Wed - Lake Day

So on Wed we got to have a fun day. We borrowed a ski boat from a nearby bible camp and played on the beach, in the boat, and had a picnic. We had a great time skiing and tubing. And ended up a nice, happy tomato red.

Tues. Pie Night

So, on Tuesday the 24th the SBF class had a pie night. All of the staff and all the students got one pie each. We all stood in a line and in order we each said who we were going to pie and why. Many of the students chose Tom, our director of the school, so instead of following the trend, I decided to pie Zach. He was in charge of giving us quizzes and leading discussions of one of the books we had to read, Church History in Plain Language. It was early in the morning when we had to do that and we all really didn't like it. So, he got pied for it. Then after all the pies were thrown we took all the random leftover chunks and smeared it on each other.