Beautiful Life.

I love my silly, beautiful life. 


I love my jobs. I love my churches. I love that my family lives so close and that they are so awesome. I love that I've managed to switch my wardrobe to basically all solid color v-neck t-shirts. I love that I have a bookshelf full of half read books and books to be read. I love that Minnesota summers make up for the terrible winters. I love that even though I drink too much coffee, my favorite cups are during good conversation with good friends. I love that I am moved into a house in which I will live with three amazing girls. I love that I live in a city that has so many opportunities for me to try new things. I love that I have a passion to learn. I love that I'll be starting grad school in a subject I care a lot about. I love that this is a stage of life for me to figure out who I am and who I want to be. I love that I have a God who cares about the mundane details of my life and who knows my heart completely. I love conversations with friends about issues that actually matter. I love sweet potato tater tots. I love that I am growing and changing in so many different areas of my life. I love that I'm excited about my future; where I'll go, who I'll meet, and what will happen. 


My life certainly isn't perfect, but I don't want it to be. It's the challenges and the silliness of it all that have made me who I am. 


My cup overflows :) 

My Favorite Place on Earth

A couple weeks ago I got to go to my favorite place on earth, Camp of the Woods. Ever since my first time as a mission camper in 2004, I jump at any opportunity I have to go back. Between summer and winter camp, the longest I've been away in the last seven years has been a year. It is such a great place, with great people and a great mission. I could talk for days about everything Camp, but as my fingers would get tired, and you would get bored, I'll summarize in list form :)

1. Ever since my first summer, I've got to watch God be faithful in the most practical ways. Almost every year there has been an almost shortage of staff, yet God always provides.Literally, one year we thought we would be short guys staff, when a guy unexpectedly drove into camp for the week and said, "What? You guys didn't get my application? I sent it months ago!" ---This year, I got to be an answer to the prayer of more staff AND I got to meet and bring someone awesome with me. So, we had even more help and my mother was pleased I wasn't driving myself. AND I got to go in a car that didn't have transmission problems nor 275,000 miles on it...but that's a whole different story.

2. For a moment I thought I would be going up as support staff...but nope! I showed up Sunday night, and Monday morning I was in a cabin with a co-counselor and 10 ten and eleven year old girls, as well as a co-team captain with 16 seven to twelve year olds. It was awesome. I prayed that my cabin would be okay with being silly and wouldn't be too cool for me. We got to be silly.  Though it may have been the first time Journey and The Black Eyed Peas made an appearance at camp, let's just say we had the "best dance party of all time." After spending so much of life doing adult like things, I was SO BLESSED to hang out with kids again.

3. New friends and old friends. Even by only being there for a week, I could tell that this summers staff was stellar. Top notch. Awesome. Meeting all the cool newbies made me wish I had been up there all summer. One of the great parts about camp, though, is that we WILL meet again. That's just how it works. In my week up there I got to connect again with friends, who though I don't see often, we can pick up just where we left off last time we were together. It's awesome. So good for my heart. AND since staff are from all over North America, I have great excuses to travel. Possible TN trip coming soon? I think yes :) 

4. Downtown Minneapolis vs. 40 miles from the nearest town, only people on a lake, trees, wildlife, stars, quiet, beautiful. Enough said.

5. FOOD. Three square meals a day. Homemade. Delicious. Fantastic. After a summer of sporadic eating habits, that was phenomenal.

Again, I could talk about camp for days straight. If your interested in hearing more, or just want to give me an outlet to talk and talk and talk, let's grab coffee and I'll tell you some great stories :)