Long Overdue Update

Wow! We have been very busy lately, which is kind of a change from my typical lifestyle in Oregon. (I haven't blogged in a while, so this one is pretty long to catch you up!)

CrossX was this past week, which was a mission trip for the Hillcrest Youth Group from Abilene, TX where our good friend Evan Simmons is the youth minister. Our two youth groups worked together on service projects all week and then we went to the coast for a weekend retreat together. The week was amazing!! Oh my goodness, I still smile when I look back on everything that happened that week. I feel a lot closer to many of our kids and feel like I really connected with several of our girls. I am going to try to do a girls sleep over this weekend, but I know my 10:30-11:00 bedtime won't work out so well with teenage girls!

I have this renewed energy and excitement about working with the youth group! God just really worked on mine and Kory's hearts this past week and we both feel like it coming right at the 1 year mark was no coincidence. Speaking of which, I can't believe we have lived here for over a year now!! Hopefully I can do an extensive one-year post soon.

Summer has finally really arrived in Oregon and I'm thrilled!! Granted, summer here means that we're in the high 70's and I don't think we have reached 80 yet...so it's perfect! It's warm and sunny in the days and then at night, it's still cool.

We are starting a new small group at church for young adults this week. Kory is leading the group and I'm hosting it at my apartment, so it will require quite a bit of work for me to clean and get things ready, but I can't wait! Hopefully people show up...even if it's only a couple people, I think we'll still be happy to have other church friends to hang out with. Young adults is a pretty loose term...if they don't have grandkids, we'll allow them to come! haha

In just a couple weeks, we're going white water rafting with a bunch of people from our church, so that is guaranteed to be a good time! The only thing I don't like is that the entire day is spent throwing people off their rafts, or squirting them with water guns and soaking them, and it's not quite hot enough for that! It's fun to get in and swim or to sit on the raft and be dry, but I remember freezing to death last year when they would get me wet and then I was sitting on the raft shivering. I would prefer an old person's trip where we don't tackle other people, and ram into their rafts, and surprise attack each other with super high powered water guns.

My laptop has died and been resurrected so many times now! Thank goodness it keeps coming back...it is really old, it's actually Kory's old laptop that is probably 5 or 6 years old, but I really don't want to buy a new one. Hopefully this one will keep hanging on for a while! I need to get my iPhone update so now that my laptop is working again I hope to get that done soon.

Back Up!

My computer quit working yesterday. It wasn't an all-out crash but I am not skilled enough to resolve the problem. We took it to the computer guy to fix it...and for the second time in just over a year, he called to tell me he had to wipe the entire hard drive clean. I understand this is necessary sometimes and I am sure he knows more about computers than I do...but still, it was like he didn't even attempt to get the information off the hard drive first. I think he only knows how to fix things by deleting it all and starting over.

Of course, the thing I am most upset about is my Europe pictures. All of them! Gone! Yes, I do have most of them on Facebook and some were e-mailed and quite a few are on Rynn's computer, so it isn't all bad. However, I am still frustrated with the computer guy and with myself for not having all my stuff backed up.

You--go back up your computer right now! Get all of that important stuff on an external hard drive or a CD or something! Don't put it off...I did that. For reals, do it right now before something happens. This has happened to me twice in one year and I still haven't learned my lesson. Someone should learn from my mistakes--I pick you!

In my quest to be optimistic about this, I have discovered a few things: 1)They were just pictures. I still have the memories and experiences. I still had the trip of a lifetime and I'll just have to work a little to get the pictures back. 2)I can't remember what else was on my laptop so maybe I won't miss it too badly. 3)I have a brand new computer now...basically. 4)God is reminding me once again not to put my treasure in earthly things. It was just a computer; nothing worth getting TOO upset about.

Did you back up all your necessary information yet? Please do. I mean, it is your loss if you don't, but I really don't wish this upon anyone. It stinks!