My Birthday!!

Ahhhh it has been such a good day! I got to school to find my desk looking like this:

Apparently people at school know about my addiction...hahaha. This isn't even all of it, there were six 12-packs of soda total, a six pack of 20oz bottles, & some other random cans. I think in the end we added it up to like 74 cans & 9 bottles of soda. I'm set for life! Haha! Kate brought me my favorite breakfast sandwich from Daily Dose, Sam & Clyvie gave me some Swiss chocolate, & Becky gave me some English chocolate. Kimmy & John wrote me really nice cards, & everyone just really made me feel loved. Gary taught our Bible Review class on James, which is my favorite book. And instead of bands practicing for worship teams the last hour of school, we all sat outside in the sun & just chatted. It was such a great day!

Tonight Kate's mom is making me chicken enchiladas, & then her homegroup is coming over for a bonfire so I think I'll hang around for that. I've just been so blessed today by all the text messages, calls, facebook posts, & friends at school. I feel so loved!

I Suck At Updating.

Sooo, not much is going on outside the usual business, but I have a bit of free time & figured maybe I should update. Let's see...school is going well, but it seems like we've been getting alot more homework recently. Kal gave us an assignment where we have to write all our future plans for after school ends...I actually HAVE plans, but it was still a little overwhelming to write that paper. Drumming is going goooood, I finally got some quality headphones that I can use to play to a metronome, & my playing has improved a TON in just a short time. Now I just need to learn some cool fills & I'll be all set. At practice last week for the sunday worship team Karen asked if I would be interested in playing drums for worship at the joint meeting the weekend of graduation, so hopefully that works out! It would be kind of scary to play in front of so many people, & ESPECIALLY people like Nick & Lori, but it's about worship, not ability, right?

My Birthday is tomorrow! That's pretty much the highlight of my week. No, I lied...I get to go home for spring break on thursday, THAT will be the highlight. Haha. I can't wait to see everyone. And I'm DEFINITELY needing a break...I can't even explain WHY I'm so busy lately, I just...AM. But I will try to post more after the break is over & I've had some time to rest & collect my thoughts. Haha.

Benefit Concert.

So, last night was the LLSOW Benefit Concert. It was an INSANELY busy day, helping Shanon cook desserts for the reception, setting everything up at the venue...& then once everyone got there I went into work mode taking trays of drinks & food around to everyone. Felt like I was back at OG. Hahaha. Kal's jazz band played, & their drummer was running late so I had to set up & sound check drums because none of the boys knew how. They were my drums that I play on sunday mornings anyway, so I'm familiar with the set up. I got to watch a bit of the show, & KBP sounded awesome. Serita sang a couple of songs, Ro sang one, they played Kal's new song...it was a really good show, & I don't even LIKE jazz. Afterwards Gary got up & spoke a little bit about reasons to donate to the school, & he used me as an example. Not by name, of course, but it was really encouraging. It was a pretty late night, but really fun too. There are professional photos up on facebook, if you're interested.

Today I visited Kenosha & had lunch with Liz & Heidi. Liz officially turned in her SOW application for next year, & now Heidi is thinking about going too, so that's exciting! I can't believe my year is almost over already...so crazy. I'm planning to post a blog soon to update everyone on what I'm going to be doing after school, but I'm waiting for a couple of things to be finalized before I say much.

And hopefully after spring break I'll get back to posting regularly.

Milwaukee.

Today Teresa decided to randomly take us to Milwaukee. We hung out & had coffee at Alterra by the lake, & then we took a walk & memorized Colossians 3:12-17 as we walked. It was sooo nice to get out of the classroom in the nice weather. The drive back took a turn for the worst though--2 people randomly got REALLY sick, & about 3 others weren't feeling that great. By the time we took those people home & grabbed lunch, Kal just decided to cancel afternoon classes. I think by the end of it all 7 people were home sick. Thank God I don't drink coffee.

I got my Vic Firth isolation headphones in the mail yesterday, so I stayed at the building & practiced with my metronome for about an hour. Now I'm home for the day with minimal homework & no plans tonight. Ahhhh it's such an amazing feeling. :o)

Blaah.

Man I'm tired. Started the morning off with Q&A time with Scott while JL is in England. Someone asked about the Trinity, so I pretty much had 2 hours where my mind was completely blown. Scott is one of the greatest teachers I've ever heard...the deep theology at 8am was a bit overwhelming. Haha. It was really good though, I've got like 8 pages of notes.

Kal gave us a free period between 10 & 11:30, & I managed to get caught up on assignments, do some reading in Pursuit of God, & tune the downstairs drums. All in all a successful hour, I'd say. In Ear Training we talked Kimmy into letting us go to Starbucks the second half of class, & then in Theory Kal got into story telling mode, so it was a pretty chill day.

Now I really want to take a nap. I'm sore from yesterday.

The Gathering.

Wooow it's been a long day! Haha!

I picked up John at 7am (really 6am) & we went to the Kenosha building to pick up my drums & haul them to Pleasant Prairie. He made a pretty good roadie. I appreciated the help. Got all the drums inside & set up in a reasonable time & then ran through all the songs for the morning with the team. I wasn't nervous at all, & I had a few slip ups here & there, but ultimately it was a great time of worship, & everyone in the congregation was really excited to have drums back, so that was encouraging!

Went to lunch with Kate, Becky, Stef, Dan & John at Panera, then came home & caught an hour-long nap before picking John up again for The Gathering. We rehearsed all the songs & everything went smoothly. Man, it was SO encouraging to see so many different youth groups from so many different denominations meeting together & worshipping. I wish more cities would have meetings like that for the youth. It's so amazing to see so many high school students just really wanting to go deeper with God. Awesome. After everything finished up, one of the baptist youth groups invited everyone on the worship team back to their coffee shop till 9:30. I hadn't planned on going, but something about it felt right so I went with everyone else. As soon as I got inside & sat down at a table, I saw a girl by herself sitting on a couch nearby. I thought I should go talk to her, but had no idea what I would say...then I saw some other people approach her & promptly leave, so I could tell she was in a bad mood, & why would me going up to her change that? But God kept speaking to me about it, & finally I figured, what have I got to lose, right? So I introduced myself & just started chatting. She actually opened up to me about alot of stuff...family, school, friends, church...stuff she likes & doesn't like about all of the above, problems & struggles. And at the end of it all, I gave her my phone number & told her to look me up on Facebook, & she goes, "Do you ever feel like sometimes God sends people to everyone ELSE right when the need it, but never to you?" I said I used to. And she said that I was an encouragement to her & that she would look me up on Facebook. I hope she does. So much of what she said almost exactly paralleled how I felt when I was going through some of those same things. It's awesome to see how God works...what if I had never gone over to her at all? Just goes to show that stepping out in faith really is worth it.

DrumsDrumsDrumsDrums...

Woooow, I can't believe I didn't post at all this week. Fail.

I've had rehearsals every day for either The Gathering or Pleasant Prairie. Tomorrow morning I play for the first time at Pleasant Prairie, & tomorrow night is The Gathering. It's going to be a big drumming day haha.

Yesterday Kal talked to us about after school ends, & his own experience in seeking God on what he was meant to do when he was done with college. It was really encouraging, actually. He was saying how sometimes God doesn't give us clear direction because He wants us to take the first step in faith. So that's what I plan to do. There are a few things that I know God has spoken to me about, & I'm going to take the first step towards those things. It's an exciting & scary time haha.

I wish I could remember more of what's happened this week...it's been so crazy busy...next week should calm down a little, & then I'll try & post more.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Still Busy!

Wow I have been terrible at updating!

This week has been up & down. I've been learning so much, but trying not to get too caught up in the practical stuff...like where I'm going to live this summer, & what sort of job to look for. I know God will provide, but I don't expect things to just fall in my lap. Haha. I guess it's that "actively waiting" thing again.

Went to see Skillet in IL on thursday night with Becky, Matt, Aby, Kimmy, & Serita. It was an awesome show, first time I've ever seen them play with pyro. Good stuff. We left in the middle of TobyMac, but he was pretty entertaining too, actually.

Between practices for The Gathering & sunday mornings, I've been staying busy drumming. I play next sunday morning at Pleasant Prairie & then next sunday night at The Gathering. Pretty excited about it, but I know it's also going to be alot of work. I'm looking forward to it though.

I can't believe Spring Break is in 4 weeks. It's starting to get warm outside, & I'm wondering where all this time has gone. It's so weird to think that we only have two & a half months left of school.

Wow this is a really general update. Haha. I wish I could remember more specifics from the week...things have just been so busy, & on top of that I've been kind of under the weather. Hopefully it's just because it's been so warm out & doesn't turn into anything serious.

Mom's Visit!

Ahh, I had a great weekend. It was so nice having my Mom in town. :o) She got here saturday morning & we had lunch & went to see Dear John. It was actually pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised. Then we went to dinner with Kate at Chili's. Good ol' Chili's. Haha. Sunday we went to church in Racine. Howard spoke, which was kind of cool because I've never heard him teach before. We went shopping sunday afternoon & had dinner with Kate again at Culver's. Mom came to class with me yesterday morning & today, & I think she really enjoyed it...JL's class yesterday in particular. Amazing.

I had rehearsal after school yesterday for The Gathering. We're going to do about 10 songs, & John said that last time he went there were about 200 people, & they expect to have more this time. Oy. A little nerve-wracking, to say the least, but I'm pretty excited. I know it will be great.

Today in Teresa's class we had to listen to a worship song & figure out the chord progressions by ear...& then go play it. Wow. Kind of hard. But I surprised myself & actually did well on figuring out the chords, & I play drums, so coming up with a beat wasn't so hard lol. I had it much easier than the guitarists & keyboardist. Haha. But it was really fun to do, & I realized that maybe I'm not such a mediocre musician after all.

I just got back from taking my Mom to the airport...& I wish she could have stayed longer. It was nice having her here. But I get to go home for spring break, so I'm looking forward to that.

NOW I am going to go catch up on Bible reading, maybe watch some Criminal Minds, & get some SLEEP!