Learning in Laundry...

So, I have learned what happens when too much soap goes into a high efficiency washer with only a few pieces of laundry in it...Lets just say that I am thankful for towels and helping hands! Last week was just not my week in Laundry. First, I washed a sleeping bag and sheet that someone had gotten sick on (eww, right?) I wasn't thinking, and put the white sheet into the same washer as the RED sleeping bag. With warm water. You all can guess what happened :) Well, to try and fix that mistake, the girls and I took some spray and wash to the sheet to try and undo the "Dye Transfer", per instructions of a laundry manual. Well, this sheet ended up with ALOT of spray and wash on it (the thing was practically all pink) so I put it in the washer, by itself. As well as some laundry detergent to get it clean. Half an hour later, we couldn't even see the sheet in the front loading washer, due to the mountain of suds filling the machine. Oh man. Trying to think quick, I put the cycle to Rinse and Spin, hoping that will dilute the suds, and rinse it clean. Hmmm, that didn't work. Ok, well mabye I can just open up the washer and scoop out some suds to help it along. Thinking they were fluffy, light suds, i grabbed a laundry basket to catch the growing mass. Turns out that these suds were thick and soupy! As i opened the door, water & suds came pouring out everywhere! I yelped and shut the door quickly, laughing hysterically. Oh goodness, what had I done?? After many buckets and towels later (and the help of one of my girls, Lindsay, who thought this was just hilarious) we cleaned up the soapy mess and restored the laundry room to its original non-sudsy order :) Remember the white-now-pink sheet that was the object of this obsession?? Well, of all things, it came out of the suds still pink! Of course :) So that trial was a bit of a failure. But if anything, I have learned from those few mistakes and now have a bit more laundry skills under my belt. I am glad God has a sense of humor and that He gave that to me as well. *Sigh* Live and learn, as they say, right??

Together

You are my best friend, the one I love. We are on this adventure together. Each day, I try and realize how blessed I am to hold your hand. To call your name and know that you will answer. We walk, hand in hand, sometimes not knowing where we are going. But we trust the One we Love. He will show us where to go. We must only follow and know that it is good. We lift our eyes up, where does our help come from? From the maker of heaven and earth. Higher than these mountain peaks, stronger that this rushing river before us. Our God speaks, and we listen!

I am so happy to be here with you, as we learn to love others more than ourselves.

~j&k Trinity Falls, '09

Trinity Falls

Here is my group of high school crew girls on our first hike we did together as a group, Trinity Falls. These are 9 beautiful (both inside and out) young women whom I am so privileged to work alongside for the summer. They are full of joy, spunk, passion and love. It is amazing as I begin to develop a relationship with each, God is revealing bits and pieces of their lives and what has made them into who they are today. All are still figuring out who exactly they will become and what road God is leading them down. They are capable of doing so much (more than they think at times!). And their hearts are so big...what an amazing opportunity, that as I teach them, they are teaching me right back. I saw a quote once, and I loved the humble meaning behind it. It read, "I teach. I learn." I am trying to take on this philosophy for the summer. We are currently taking the girls through the book of Proverbs for our daily bible study. Wisdom is key in that book, and these first few chapters have been full of advice on why wisdom should be sought after, the importance of it, what happens when we ignore wisdom. Whew! I have never really done an in depth study of Proverbs, so this has been really neat. And so many of our girls are at pivotal deciding points in their lives right now, so learning about all of this will hopefully make an impact on how they make decisions about their future.

Well, it will be quite exciting to continue this journey for the summer, trying to listen to God as he directs me in mentoring these girls. We have so much fun together, amidst the hard work, and I am so thankful for that!

An early morning jaunt proved fruitful as we got to see this little cutie! He was jumping all around the other adult bison...very cute! The image above is of a place in the Tetons called Oxbow Bend...a classic photo opportunity! We went here several nights, set up some chairs and watched for wildlife as we sipped coffee. Talk about amazing!

more of the trip..

Michael and Liz, Paul, and Katie standing in front of hidden falls...wonderful friends for our camping trip. The print beside Joe's hand is from a bear, we're thinking maybe a grizzly?? Or maybe just hoping...

Our Teton Adventure

Here we are in one of the most amazing canyons ever...Cascade Canyon in Teton National Park. We camped for 4 days before heading out the rest of the way to Clydehurst last week. Pretty awesome...

The First Day!

So, we arrived here at clydehurst yesterday (Sunday) and were welcomed by a chilly wet afternoon! Actually, to be correct, it was snowing! We were too excited to be let down, though :) After hugs and squeals of excitment (ok, most of the squeals came from Joe... ahem, i mean Katie ) we enjoyed introductions, lunch, and a move in time. Joe and I were happy to find out we were going to stay in the same cabin as 2 years ago!! And this time as we moved in...we weren't quite as shocked to the size (or lack thereof!) It is actually quite endearing to be in Cabin # 32 once more!

And as of now, we have the "first day" under our belts...whew! I am enjoying the high school crew girls...they are such hard workers! And we are blessed to have 5 returners from last year, who are taking initiative and helping to train the newer staff (myself, included!) I have much to learn, but I am willing and ready, which I figure is the best attitude to have. Joe has been leading the crew boys excellently, so far, and I can tell that they are looking up to him already. They were working hard all day, despite the rain and chilly temperatures. It has been quite the switch to come from Ohio with 80 degree weather, to here in the mountains with 39 and rain! But worth it, definitely. In fact, we took a walk this evening and saw a Momma Black bear with 2 cubs out in the meadow field across the river from camp! Talk about amazing...we just stood and watched them roam around. And then...(yup, it gets better!) we kept walking down the road to the "beaver ponds" where one can find moose frequenting the area. Lo and behold, we saw a moose standing not 200 feet from us, watching our every move :) We could hear something else off in the distance and looked up just in time to notice another moose actually running down the road towards us! A car slowly approaching behind it, causing it to run. We quickly ran off the road and hid up on the hill by some big rocks (kinda hilarious-looking, but moose can be dangerous!) He veered off into the pond and up into some willows...talk about exciting. Well, i guess thats life in the mountains, for ya.

We are really excited to see how God will move this summer...please pray that we would daily depend on Jesus for our strength, wisdom, and guidance as we try and not only lead the high schoolers, but also build relationships with the rest of our amazing staff members. This summer will be full of learning opportunities, adventures, failures and successes. It is just so amazing that God would bring us out here once more.

We are working on taking our pictures off our camera from the Teton camping trip and will post those soon. The trip was, well, amazing. One of our favorite places with some of our favorite people.

I will leave you with a verse, one that I am keeping close to my heart this summer!

Katie

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

On the Road Again....

Well, our journey west has landed us in Rapid City, S.D. for the night. We traveled about 12 hours today (whew!) but kept entertained by praying, reading the Word, listening to “The Shack” on cd, and reading the book “Into the Wild”. We also enjoyed the changing scenery as we trekked westward...rolling hills and plains, cattle and the seemingly never ending road! Last night we stayed with good friends Sam and Derek in Iowa City. We met their new daughter, Maya Hope...she was just born last sunday. Talk about a beautiful baby! It was so much fun visiting with them and seeing them as mom & dad...God has blessed them with another amazing gift! We had a fun time catching up and the visit was all too short! We hope to see them on our way back to Ohio at the end of the summer!

We also made a stop at the iconic Wall Drugstore off of Interstate 90 this evening. Very interesting! You can actually start seeing signs for Wall Drug about 400 miles before arriving there! Fairly comical...but we stopped anyway. You can pretty much find anything “touristy” you can think of in the huge drugstore! After some crazy pics, we headed out to end up in Rapid City. Dinner was had at Bosco’s Gourmet Pizza (tradition we started 2 yrs ago!) and we are excited to head out to Big Timber, MT tomorrow! Liz and Michael will be waiting for us when we arrive, and we will prepare for our Teton adventure! Praise the Lord we have been safe and sound so far....we love traveling together into the west! Thank you to all our friends and family for all your prayers and love! We miss you and love you! Until later.... :)