I have lots stewing in my head right now just begging to be blogged about, but I'll have to pick a couple and just go with them.

Today I found a book in a donation pile that taught English by way Bible verses. It was disturbing... I mean, sentence diagrams of John 3:16? I think that might just cross a few lines. I'm keeping the book though because it is just that strange. I asked someone in the office if it was bad of me to keep them, and she said that I was showing it honorable disrespect. I laughed.

I'm doing something new and different tonight. I'm hanging out at a coffee shop with a friend who is doing some reading for school. I feel all cool and hip being one of the mac users... my old laptop was just that... old. It was a chore to get it online anywhere, but this one is sleek and great. I feel like I joined the cool kids club or something. In any case, I hope to work this sort of thing into my life some more, I just wish that there were places here in town that did an open mic night or something equally cool. Some of my best memories in college were attending open mic nights at Espresso Royale, and although their coffee was usually sub-par, there was some great (and horrid) talent on Tuesday nights. It also gave me the opportunity to do some people watching that I love doing. It also gives me the opportunity to just take in a different atmosphere. My apartment has been filling me with a sense of ennui. I get home and am completely annoyed with the boredom that ensues when I set my foot in the door. Thankfully I can get away from it all through books or by simply getting out of my apartment. Hopefully I'll cure myself of that feeling after the next few weeks as I have some trips coming up that should entertain me enough to want some quiet and solitude when I get home.

I used to cringe at the word "pentecostal." I used to be wary of anyone who went to a church with the word "evangelical" in the title. Non-denominational? Are you too good for a proper denomination? I used to be really wary of people whose theology was based solely around their beliefs in hell (ok that one hasn't changed).

I guess my point in this little bit of exposure of my past thoughts on denominations is that those things no longer really get to me. I think God works within all of those denominations, and speaks to people in different ways. God's grace is offered to all. Not just United Methodists, or Catholics, or Lutherans, or non-denoms. Am I less of a Christian because of the denomination that I've chosen to express my faith? No. Absolutely not.

I bring this up because last night I overheard a story where someone was talking about an individual and started out by saying quietly... "Well she's a Lutheran..." Like that explains her behavior. I was taken aback by the broad sweeping generalization and honestly just wanted to get up and leave but I didn't have my check yet so I couldn't. What kind of labels do you attach to that stereotype? Do people talk about me like that? "Well I heard that she's United Methodist so that must mean..." Do I fit nearly every stereotype that one would associate with the UM church? Yes. I do. But that isn't my point.

My point in all of this is that we all have stereotypes. I know I have them, but I try so hard not to. I know that I'm affected by them when people look at me, when they learn what I do, everything. As a Christian, I am called to look beyond those stereotypes. To get upset when I see injustice and to fight for people's rights.

I wish I hadn't have been across the table last night. Because I wanted nothing more than to question that stereotype. When I do not speak up at things that I feel are wrong, I feel like I'm not doing my part.

I’ve no read pretty much every book written by Douglas Coupland, the writer who coined the term Generation X. I’ve got a couple more to go, but I feel like he is probably my favorite fiction writer. When I first moved here, I picked up some of his books at the library because I remembered reading and enjoying Microserfs when I was 14 or 15. I think what I love about Coupland is that he makes me think. In some of his books, it seems that what he is writing could be reality. In others, the story becomes so real that things that probably couldn’t happen seem like they might.

The book I finished today, Girlfriend in a Coma, is incredibly intriguing. With Coupland, I can’t ever really guess where he is going. I know that there is some point that he is trying to drive home, but I don’t always get it. The story is an unlikely one, but through it I became more and more convinced that what was happening was something that could. In the end, I feel like I understand the world a little bit more, and I understand what I’m doing a little bit more after having read this book.

Imagine standing there, knowing that the world has ended. You are surrounded by your friends, but you’ve just wasted a few months together getting nothing out of what has happened to you. You have a choice, you can go on with your friends in the world with no one else, continuing on your paths of self-destruction where life means nothing, or you can go back to the day that the world ended and start all over again as long as this time around you try to make a difference. You let people know that the world is theirs, that life means something, and that the current state of the world that has us working towards efficiency and getting things done isn't our purpose. Can’t we ever revel in the presence of another?

I don’t have to go through that kind of tragedy of watching the world end around me to know that I want to make a difference, to know that I want to give to this world despite the discouragement, pain, and suffering.

I love when fiction opens my mind to new things. It always opens up my world a little bit to ideas that normally would pass me by.

I don't remember how exhausted I was last year after we brought in our families, but this year definitely wore me out. I think I was just caught in the whirlwind of it all last year and didn't notice how tired I was or how worn out I was.

Our move in was successful yesterday, we got 4 families moved in and finished up the moving in just about 4 hours. I drove all over the city a few times and carried lots of things up and down stairs and in and out of cars.

Tomorrow is our first open session with the entire group, which should be interesting. I'm just ready for it to be the weekend already. I plan on spending most of it curled up with a book. There is something soothing about the retreat into fiction that just cannot be duplicated.

There is an article in this week's Current (my home conference newspaper) about me and the US-2 program and the US-2 that is being sent to IGRC to work at Cunningham Children's Home. Though it says the article was a blog post, it wasn't. But they linked here anyway. I expect my readership to spike within the next week and then die down again, so maybe I'll get some content driven posts here soon.

I'm working on some ideas for activities for our families currently and I'm excited about what we may be able to try to offer this year. Now that I sort of know what I'm doing, I feel a lot more confident about planning things and getting things done. I really want our families to feel at home and to feel part of the larger community.

Today was a good day.

This morning was spent shopping for pantry supplies for our families. That meant way too long in Wal-mart, but that was ok. I don't let myself shop at walmart anymore so I hadn't been in since about May, but it wasn't that bad of an experience.

After stocking the pantry items and putting them in the apartments, I went out to lunch with a couple of the women who helped us out. We had a good time. I often find myself talking about my goals and what I'm doing next (really the various possibilities of what I'm doing next) with people these days. I talked a lot about counterculture because it really has quickly become a part of who I am and what defines me here in albuquerque.

As we finished up, two of us decided we needed to try to finish up one of the apartments that didn't quite get done. So we headed down to the storage unit. Oh joy, the storage unit. My favorite place. *cough, sarcasm*

To make a long story short, Linda and I were in the storage unit, and I noticed that a guy was standing inside the storage unit hunched down over some lamps I had just placed near the front. Suddenly I see him pick up a lamp and walk out the door. I mention this to Linda as I'm walking towards him and she turns around and yells "Sir! Excuse me that lamp is ours!" At that point the man set the lamp down in the middle of the alley and kept walking. It was strange. I will never know what he could have done with a lamp made at least in the 80s if not 70s, but he didn't get away with it. So apparently if you ever need a lamp, walk down a random alley and pick one up.

We got the apartment together for the most part minus a mirror that we can't figure out how to hang.

All of the apartments are ready for families, which is good as we're bringing in 4 new families tomorrow. We'll pick up our first one at 10, our second at 11:30, another at 12 and the last will meet us there at 1. It will be a long day, though it doesn't sound like these people have near the amount of stuff that some of our families had last year. I guess one misconception that I had coming into this was that our families would really not have very much stuff when they moved in. Now it is true that families usually have very little, but we did manage to fill up a jeep last time moving a family out of a shelter. It is possible to accumulate things, but keeping them safe is another story.

I wish I could share a picture of the shoppers and our groceries from today, but I can't get the pictures off of the camera as I don't have the cable I need. I have to go in tomorrow and get them put on a cd and then I will share pictures.

Tonight was our first Monday night football meetup at the counterculture house where I watched about a quarter and a half of the game. It just got terribly boring watching Dallas run away with the ball. Instead I ended up playing pool and won quite a few games and lost in the final round against Paul (who happens to own the table we were playing on). It was a good night, but I'm tired. Since the thumping bass doesn't exist next door and it is relatively quiet, I think I'll give sleep a chance. This is an incredibly busy week, full of ups and downs emotionally with bringing in new families, so I need all the rest I can muster.

10 days now until I get to visit my brother and only 18 days until I get to visit my home away from home at Alma Matthews in the East Village. Yay for US-2 midterm! I'm so beyond ready for it to be September.

So Tuesday we'll be bringing in new families. We made phone calls this morning to our new families and to the ones that we aren't able to bring in. It was heartbreaking really, we interviewed 9 families and could only bring in 4. The worst part about that was that the 5 we had to say no to all were certainly qualified and could have been great families. I certainly hope that the other families might be able to find some resources here in the city that might get them out of the situations that they are in.

The ones I called this morning to confirm about being in the program were so very excited. I didn't have quite the reaction as I got with one family last year, but I still had to move the phone away from my ear as they screamed. It is so great to be giving new families a chance. We certainly know we will have challenges with them ahead, but I'm excited to get to know these new families and really get to know them.

We're doing some last minute prep on Monday to bring the families in, and then Tuesday is the day. On Tuesday we'll have 4 new families to care for and deal with. Which means that I'm going to be busy. But I thrive on busy so that's good.

I do just want September to come quickly. Once we get to September things won't be as unpredictable. I like being busy but I sure like structure.

Prayers for Saranam are always appreciated, but right now we really truly need them.

I am slowly but surely becoming a bigger nerd than I already was. See, I was gifted with a new laptop. Sort of the ultimate agape if you will. During our time as US-2s, people often give us gifts that we call agape. Some friends of mine in being completely amazing people gave me a Macbook. I was stunned. Shocked if you will. But definitely not complaining about the awesomeness of God's blessings.

I know, I know. There are those of you thinking to yourself, but Laura! You're a PC girl through and through! You wanted to make PC components not Mac components when you started in computer engineering!! But the truth is, the Macbook is super nice. I had always been intrigued by the Macs that our old neighbors in Rockford had, and really, how can you be a serious blogger without a mac?

So I've had to buy a couple of things for it, a cable for S-video so I can plug it into my TV for starters, but then I also needed a bag. I went to a few stores but I had seen a bag online that had really been intriguing to me. I went looking for the bag, maybe it would be sold at REI with the other timbuk2 bags. No dice.

So I ordered it on Sunday from REI.com. It is none other than the "Blogger" bag. Yes, I am officially a huge nerd. But this bag has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen. And yes, I did order the brown and orange one. But that's because the other combinations weren't at all appealing and I have a really sad addiction to the color orange. Just too bad it couldn't be orange and blue. I can't wait for it to come, it is supposed to be in on Friday but I will certainly be anxiously awaiting its arrival by checking and rechecking UPS.com for the rest of the week.

Please be in prayer for Saranam this week. We're interviewing families tomorrow and also have a meeting tomorrow night that is really important and stressful. Pray that God will continue to bless this ministry and continue to transform lives.

What a weekend. I needed some relaxation and fun, and this was definitely the weekend for it. Friday night, I went to the zoo for the last zoo music concert. We got to hear Antigone Rising. It was a great time and made me sad that I didn't go to more of them this summer. My friend Leah and I managed to pretty much see all of the animals and I was pretty impressed by the zoo. Now it was no Brookfield, but it was a decent zoo. I guess I would say it was maybe slightly smaller than the St. Louis zoo for those keeping track.

Here are some of the friends I made at the zoo.
I don't know that I had ever seen an aerial view of zebras.


This guy was hanging out by himself in the corner. But he was the only one that would look at us. I enjoyed him.



The little dude was trying to show off to the bigger ones. It was funny stuff.



For some reason I like turtles. Or maybe its a tortoise. Hrm.


This picture was taking REALLY far away but I am impressed with it. The tiger was hanging out in the back.


So Saturday was a normal Saturday with just hanging out around the apartment before counterculture. Tara and I made a pretty cool stained glass window out of lighting gels to go with the theme of being broken glass and reflecting God's light. I know that God is definitely working on me through counterculture and it is a really good thing.

Today, I went and played Ultimate frisbee with the counterculture, which was good times but I was sad that I had to leave early. I haven't played ultimate in a few years so it was good to get back into it.

I left early because I was headed off to the Isotopes game with the youth group from Central. I was really excited because this was my first Isotopes game and I love all the kids that we brought. Little did I know that the excitement was just beginning. The Isotopes were winning, we were in the third inning I believe (I was having a conversation with a 7 year old about the clouds and what they are made of, it was a family affair). So the rain drops started. It was innocent at first, and we were under the awning. And then it began. The rain started coming in from two different directions, the wind whipped around us and they brought out the tarp for the field. Well we're tough, we can handle it. And then it rained more. And got cold. And started hailing. So we rounded up the youth, sprinted to the van in the pouring rain and went back to church. Needless to say, it was an eventful evening. Now I'm home, cold and still slightly damp, but overall it was a really great weekend. The last photo I leave you with was when had decided to leave. I was freezing. So you get the "Laura is cold & wet & really wants to leave" face.

A little reminder of God's work in my life. Taken Sunday August 6th. 

I've been thinking about the disconnect between my generation and those that are older than mine, even 5- 10 years older. I know that younger generations always complain about how older people don't understand them, don't trust them, don't care about them. Mostly, it is probably just young people trying to fight to be heard, but I am beginning to think that things are different and that the ways of thinking are changing and that the understanding between older generations and mine may be a fight to get to work.

Why is this? Well I've talked at length about this with some friends of mine and I would venture to say that the reason for this disconnect is the transfer of information. Think of it this way. Until about 10 years ago, computers were not commonplace in a standard American home. We communicated with others via the telephone, waiting for those Sunday nights when rates would go down. We wrote letters. I can remember back to when my brother went off to college and he even wrote me some letters. That was 1990. High speed internet is just beginning to be common in homes, making the switch from a slow 56 k modem (I remember when we got our first 14 k modem). Suddenly, technology booms for the common American citizen. I was fortunate to have a family that jumped on those bandwagons early, but some of my friends who are a few years older than I am still struggle with technology and how it works and how it integrates into our lives.

Suddenly there are these social networks that have sprung up on the internet... facebook, friendster, myspace... they are limitless. And blogs? The distribution of material has become absolutely amazing. Suddenly intellectuals spring up from nowhere. People who demand to have their material read, some that do it for themselves and some that do it for a profit.

Reaching people my age is getting harder for those who do not understand these technical advances. Every night, I talk to my friends in Illinois and in other parts of the country for free (well for the cost of my internet). I can use things like skype or google talk to chat with them via voice, but most of the time it is all instant messaging.

I am a child of the multi-tasking generation. Also known as a child of the perpetual ADHD generation. I always have to be doing more than one thing. I read books while talking online or listening to music. I talk to people on the phone while surfing the internet. I have a whole lot of difficulty being completely present with others because of my need to constantly be doing something else. I blame this somewhat on the technology, I think there are good and bad parts to the mulit-tasking, but it is how I run.

I am often left unimpressed by the attempts to reach younger people by churches. Not because they're not trying, but because they likely haven't even thought about asking people my age what they want. The issues that we deal with are completely different than those of our parents who grew up in the 60s, 70s or even 80s. Technology has changed everything. It is the window by which I see the world. I am considerably more informed about world issues, and varying sides of world issues because I don't have to rely on watching the evening news for everything. I can check website after website getting all sides of the story.

Reaching out to this generation is going to be tough. I am hopeful because of the people that I know that are my age and are beginning to see that we must be the leaders of this millennial generation. We are always going to ask why and being spoon-fed answers will not fly. There are two parts to everything, the question and the answer. Those who are simply satisfied with the answers are people that I don't understand. Those that see the world in black and white are those that I do not understand. The complexity of this world is something I cherish. I seek the next question. I want to be someone that encourages that and that lets others grow because of it.

I just finished reading a book for my Wednesday morning women's Bible study (we do books, studies, read children's books and much more than your typical Bible study). The book was recommended to do by one of our members, so we spent a couple of weeks on it. At first I was a little bit hesitant, but after reading the first chapter, I was hooked. The book is called Mister God, This is Anna. The story is true, and both that fact and the fact that the book is phenomenal blew me away. Today we talked about having "Anna" moments... those moments where *poof* it all makes sense. Or maybe when it makes a little less sense...

The book is the story of a friendship between a young man and a little girl he befriends and brings home. From their first meeting, Anna is curious. Anna is one of those children who can just astound you just by mere words. Someone that understands the deep aspects of God and just how full of God moments the world is. I became enthralled by Anna early in the book. Partly because her curious side is something I see in me, and partly because it was hard to believe that a girl age 4-7 could come up with things that I've taken 23 years to try to figure out.

I suppose the points I spoke about most during our discussion this morning were the parts where Anna explains how unbelievable God is. And at the same time how believable. There is one discussion where Anna explains that we ultimately go to church to understand God less. Curious I thought, but I read on. What she says to explain that is that as we learn more and more about God, God grows more and more and we truly realize the grandness of God. As God gets bigger and bigger, we understand less and less. I remember having discussions about the trinity through my time in college, and that is one of those concepts that I feel we understand less and less the more we discuss. It is all part of the mystery of God. The grandness of this earth and the creation and how much God cares for us all.

One of my favorite quotes from the book to describe this is this:

"In whatever way or state you understand Mister God, so you diminish his size. He becomes and understandable entity among other understandable entities. So Mister God keeps on shedding bits all the way through your life until the time comes when you admit freely and honestly that you don't understand Mister God at all. At this point, you have to let Mister God be his proper size -- and wham! -- there he is laughing at you."

Some days that's how I picture God. And some days I want my God to be in a tiny little box that I understand and can deal with. Good thing I don't always get what I want. But this concept of the grandness of God that I'm learning through books and through stories of friends, through life experiences and the pursuit of things greater than myself, is one I cherish.

In any case, I've learned a few things. God is and always will be in my middle, I must seek to see other people by seeing the God in their middle, and ultimately, God is laughing.

So what do you think about random cheesy church signs?

For example... these.

I for one, think they are tacky. I also think that they do very little as far as evangelism goes. They are often fairly offensive to non-Christians. I think that most of the time they are so cheesy that they aren't even funny.

I ask this question because it was a heated debate in staff meeting this morning that I stuck my foot into. For the most part, I keep my mouth shut when I'm upset about decisions the rest of the staff make because technically I'm not church staff (this issue is strange and debateable). So we're talking about new signs, a marquee maybe... fine. I was squirming a bit, Tracy told me I should speak up, but my only concern with that is that they are expensive, somewhat tacky and we really aren't in a prime location for one.

Then it began... should we put witty (*ahem* cheesy) phrases on our church sign we have now? Something like "If you think its hot here...." And I busted in. I have been in plenty of situations with friends in cars that pass churches like that and are utterly disgusted. Non-Christians don't get it and probably won't set foot in the church if you throw one of those up there. I got some "But all I've ever heard is positive things about signs like that." kind of answers. What did I want to retort? "ARE YOU EVEN FRIENDS WITH ANY NON-CHRISTIANS?" or something like, "Do you know anyone under the age of 30 that isn't me?"

I was boiling by that point. I took some time to share those concerns with my boss and our Christian Ed director because I was really at an all time high for being upset after staff. I guess in a lot of ways I feel like I wasn't heard in the setting at all. I've already had other feedback in the same setting that pretty much indicated to me that people under 30 who are maybe not in a place to give exorbitant amounts financially don't really matter. It frustrates me to no end. I am so dedicated to the UMC and so dedicated to what I do and what I believe but these frustrations are really getting the better of me.

I'm in this place where I'm really trying to discern my call to ministry and what I want to be and what I want to stand for, and having interactions like this makes me want to run from ministry altogether. Evangelism cannot be done effectively by putting a clever (*ahem* cheesy) sign up. Evangelism cannot (normally) be done by witnessing to someone unsuspectingly in the philosophy aisle of your local bookstore. Evangelism is something that I see done by engaging in friendships. By showing people that Christ is alive and good and doing amazing things. I don't want evangelism to be a "dirty" word anymore. I want to reclaim it and truly share what it is that I am all about. But in times like these, it becomes difficult. I don't want to be a part of a community that can be condemning, even when it is done in humor.

I've gone through application after application this week. We've had all sorts of interesting people apply to our program this time around. People who are broken, people who have situations that are completely out of their control. People who struggle to live day to day, who struggle to feed their children. We're missing the point when all we want to do to engage people and bring them in the door is to put some snarky (*ahem* cheestastic) saying on our sign. We need to be engaging the least and the lost, and more importantly loving them. Isn't that what life is all about? Isn't that what Jesus called us to?

So I wasn't going to blog about this tonight, but I'm up so I think I will.

For me, I find refuge among stacks of books. Around 7:30 or so tonight, I decided I needed to get out of the apartment and headed to Barnes and Noble. Now when I'm at home, I head there in order to meet up with friends, but when I go here, I certainly don't expect to run into people like at home and certainly don't expect to strike up conversations with strangers.

I usually start out in the magazines then head upstairs to the religion and philosophy books spending a little time at each. The religion books I like are on one side of the aisle and the philosophy is on the other side. So I'm standing there, having made one selection, and I pick up a book from the philosophy section. I've already looked at some random philosophers, but the book I had in had was one where you can do little tricks to sort of freak yourself out. One I can remember was sitting alone in a room and calling out your name repeatedly. Even though you're the one who is saying it, eventually you get the feeling that someone really is calling you and the only way to stop it is to say "I'm coming!"

So I'm standing there minding my own business when this guy walks up and says hi. He gets progressively closer to me and I'm like... woah. Too close to me to not be talking to him. So he strikes up a conversation that goes something like this...

Him: Hi, how are you doing?
Me: (looks up) Fine. (looks back down at book kind of irked that someone is disturbing me)
Minute of silence.
Him: Do you know where I could find the book the Buddha and Jesus?
Me: (Standing in front of Buddhism books) Probably around here somewhere but I haven't heard of it. (still trying to ignore him)
Him: What do you think about philosophy? Like do you think these books have any validity? (Points to books on the Hare Krishna and Dalai Lama)
Me: I think that God has interesting ways of manifesting our relationship with him. (Crap, I've opened the God door)
Him: Well I was a philosophy major at UNM and found that they really opened the doors to things that aren't good. Like studying philosophy is a gateway into things like this. You know, like marijuana is a gateway drug into other drugs. (I'm sure my background in Nietzsche would have freaked him out entirely)
Me: Well actually my degree is in religious studies so I know all about philosophy and religion and I think there are definitely some valid points to religions outside of Christianity.
Him: So you're Christian?
Me: Yeah, and actually I'm a missionary with the United Methodist Church.
Him: So you're saved and here I am trying to witness to you. I was down getting coffee and thought I should come up here and witness to someone reading new age books.
Me: Well that's nice of you.

We made a little more small talk before Tara showed up, but for the most part I was laughing inside during most of that conversation. I do have to give the kid some mad props for being willing to start a conversation like that, but honestly if I weren't Christian I think he might have freaked me out a bit. So thanks random guy named Chris for talking to me tonight. I know it was probably difficult for you, and you didn't get to add a checkmark to "people I saved today" (you get the true cynic in this one), but you certainly opened my eyes to interesting things with this one.

I am worn out. Plain and simple. This week has been one of preparation and planning, and making sure that the next few weeks will run as smoothly as humanly possible. They won't, but I can try.

We kick things off tomorrow moving furniture at the apartments. I've enlisted my friends from counterculture to help with that, and hopefully we'll have enough bodies to get it done in a timely manner. I went down to our storage unit this morning to assess what has been marked for apartments. A few pieces, but mostly nothing. I am not convinced we have enough beds but maybe they're hiding. The storage unit is a source of frustration for me, as we don't have power there currently, and though stuff is strategically placed in the unit, it may be more difficult to get at some of the pieces that we need. I'm hoping that isn't the case though and I'm hoping that my group of people will band together and get things done tomorrow. We dont' have to move as much stuff as originally intended, but there is still plenty to move. 2 of the 4 apartments are way closer to complete than I had imagined they would be. They just need some random furniture and beds. Lots of beds.

Applications are due the 8th so I've been running background checks, asking people to take drug tests, meeting prospective families, calling reference sources. It is interesting, last year I did all of this but I didn't know what to ask for and was in constant conversation with our case manager and with our director about anything and everything. That hasn't been the case this year, I know how to answer stuff and I know what red flags to look for. Instincts in this job are incredibly important.

We'll have interviews the week after next, I'm trying to pin those times down, and trying to get people's schedules to mesh to do that is rough.

The week after that, we'll have new families and I'll be driving around people, getting them to places, trying to figure out what the families are like, what their issues are and how I can best serve them. I'm really anxious for that part to come. The summer is filled with a lot of prep and office work and very little interaction with people. Though I enjoy that from time to time, I'm ready to meet our new families, to spend time with them and get to know them. That's the best part of my job. To hear stories and begin to create stories with them. I can't imagine my life without our families we've had this past year, from hearing the constant "SUNSHINE!" when they see me, knowing that they trust me and really appreciate that I'm around. It'll be good times to have another group. I'm way beyond excited.

Work is super busy, so I tend to want nothing more than to come home and not think about writing anything. I guess getting out of the habit of writing while I was in Denver also didn't help me jump back in the writing. It isn't that I'm completely uninspired, it is much more thatI just have been spending my time and energy dealing with other things that don't involve me spilling my thoughts into a blog editor.

This past weekend, Jeremy and Daen moved to Ohio, and there is definitely a void to be filled in their departure. The lack of Bible study at their house tonight was sad. I didn't really feel like tracking people down to try to have it tonight, I'm just sort of peopled out from the lock in this past weekend. But I am going to need some Bible study that doesn't make me completely crazy so I'll have to figure that one out. I was hoping we would continue on with it, but with the marriage of the other two coming up quick I know they are really busy.

So August will probably fly by, with applications, interviews, new families and just all sorts of craziness. I'm headed to Dallas for Labor Day weekend because my brother and his wife are flying me out. This will be the first time I've visited my brother without my parents so it will be a new experience for me. Should be fun. Then the week after that I head to NYC for my midterm US-2 event. A few days of fun with my US-2s is going to be absolutely awesome. So I'm busy, but I've got lots floating around in my head to write blogs about just not enough energy to collect thouse thoughts.