Vamos A La Playa!!

So we finally hit up the beach yesterday and today!! It was about time! We had to cut the beach time short yesterday since we had to come back and work from 3 - 7! But we got a whole lot done. We might possibly get Friday off now. I'll post pictures up soon so everyone can admire our hard work :) . All week long we've been "thinking snow" (the theme this year is arctic edge) which is rather difficult when you are less than 5 minutes away from the beach. That's one thing that is different from last summer too. Last summer we were doing beach reaches 2 or 3 times a week, so we constantly saw the beach. This summer we can only go at night or on the weekends. Bummer. So here's a good story. There's this new place opening up here called "the wharf". It's got a rave theater, an ampitheatre, shops, a ferris wheel, etc. Well Wednesday night a lady in the church gave us tickets to ride the ferris wheel for free on the grand opening (Thursday night @ 5). But all along we kept hearing that it was free to the public the first night, so we just assumed it was just a ticket to get in, no big deal. Well we ended up working until like 9 or 10 Thursday night and never really thought much about it. Well at dinner Bro. John walked in and asked why we weren't there. Turns out, our tickets were $250 tickets to ride the very first ride of the ferris wheel ever! Its the biggest ferris wheel in the southeast and they had been auctioning off tickets and it was a really big deal. A lady at the church had bought enough tickets for one gondala and spent $2,500 on all 10 seats! And we had 5 of them and didn't show up!! Needless to say, we felt horrible and were really sad we missed out!! Sad day. But on Friday all the rest of the summer missionaries arrived. There are 9 girls now and 5 guys. They are great, and they are going to have an awesome summer together!! It really makes me miss the girls in our group last year. Kala left today with the rest of our family (excluding mom and dad) to go to Destin for our annual family vacation. I'm sad we're missing out this year. It's always so much fun. Well I guess thats about it for now, I'm sure these entries are all really boring to everyone except for maybe my mom. I'm making her read this so she will know what we are doing, since our phones dont work very good down here.

I am so over large sizes of bulletin paper!!

Well the last few days have been very busy to put it mildly. Our days are consumed with miles of bulletin paper, scissors and paint!! Plus we managed to squeeze in a few cookouts. I dont know how often I will get a chance to update this thing. We are so tired by the end of the day, I have been going to bed by 10:30....if you know me, you know that NEVER happens. Luckily, right now I have time in the office. We are all taking shifts in the office to answer the phone, register kids for camp, etc. Things are a little different around here this year. Instead of the normal 2 interns, there are 4...me, Lauren, Laura Casey, and Stephanie Wallace. It's been really nice having two other people here that we already knew, eventhough the living quarters are a little cramped! Speaking of cramped...its only going to get worse. Last year we were summer missionaries, (and we also lived here at the church) but there were 6 of us total. This year, there are like 14!! They haven't all arrived yet, so I'm not exactly sure. Another difference is that there are guy summer missionaries this year. So it has been nice having some testosterone around. It's also nice to have them to blame when things go wrong! ;) Just kidding. Sorta. There is still so much work to do! We are responsible for fully decorating 11 rooms. This includes a full mural on one wall, and turning the other 3 walls into a log cabin. Plus we are in the process of making an ice cave in the missions room. We have to have all this done this week! Next week, there is even more to get done. It probably doesn't sound like a whole lot, but trust me, it is! Plus, my curriculum isn't in for the class I'm going to be teaching. So I'm really getting scared about preparing all those lessons. I got the chance to look at one of the guy's (he is also teaching third grade) book, and much to my dismay, there is not nearly enough material to have 10 - 90 minute lessons. I'm going to have to do a lot of digging around for more activities and materials. This adds a lot more stress to my planning. But, I am really excited about camp actually starting. Its gonna be so much fun. Last night, at the Wednesday night service at church, we had to introduce ourselves to the church, tell why we are here, how we got here, all that jazz. Then the boys each gave a short devotion. It was really cool to hear how each of them are so different, and have such different testimonies, but all have the same call to the ministry. At the end of the service Bro. John had us each kneel at the alter and the church came and layed hands on us and prayed over us. There is something so powerful about physically feeling their hands supporting us and hearing the prayers voiced for us. It was very encouraging! It also makes me feel so unworthy to be in this position. But God's love knows no bounds, and he is going to use all of us (as unworthy as we may be) to plant some seeds for him this summer. I'm really excited to see the amazing things that can happen!

Well Megan told me to get one of these...so apparently I listen to everything she says! I swore I'd never be a "blogger", but here I go. I figure it will atleast be a good way to keep up with what everyone is doing over the summer. Right? Right! Plus she said this way we wont have to talk to each other...whew what a relief!! (Megan you know I'm kidding...call us soon!) So...the most exciting thing so far this summer was the Road Trip! From Florence, Al to Los Angeles, CA. 4 girls, 4 guys, 3 cars, 10 states, 6 days, 6 ipods, 225 sour punch straws, and a theme song for every state (well, 6 or 7 for California!). We got to see the Grand Canyon, and stay in Las Vegas and LA! We also saw approximately 7 fanny packs, and some black sheep (right Jason?), and probably every gas station west of the Mississippi. Anyways, we are now settled safely in Orange Beach where we will be for 4 weeks. We are interning for First Baptist Orange Beach. By we, I mean me and Lauren of course. These first two weeks we are setting up for Camp OB Outfitters. As it is referred to around here, it is vacation bible school on steroids. Instead of the usual schedule it is 2 weeks, 8 hours a day. I was told yesterday that I will be responsible for a class of third graders in the morning. I'm a little bit nervous about that, because it is a 85 minute lesson every day for 2 weeks, and I haven't even gotten my curriculum yet. Mrs. Wanda (the pastor's wife, she is basically our boss) told us to spend 2 hours a day planning the lessons until camp starts. Thats more than I study for school!! On top of that, me and Laura Casey are doing a Cafe type track time in the afternoons. We have to come up with food for the kids to bake and be crafty with for 10 days, 3 or 4 big groups a day!! If you know me or Laura, you know that is quite funny! So needless to say, I'm a bit overwhelmed. Its alot more work than I remembered. But more on that later. We are about to run to Wal-Mart and get some supplies.