July Fun!

This month is going to be filled with lots of outdoor fun! I have never been more excited to see sun and warm weather...winter seemed to last forever.

We started meeting with our small group a couple weeks ago and it has been awesome! I love our group and really enjoy our time together each week. We meet on Thursday nights at my apt and we are currently studying the book of Romans. There have been 7 or 8 people coming each week which has been a great group size.

We went kayaking on Saturday and it was SO much fun! We both loved it! Kory got dumped out of his kayak as he went into some small rapids and I almost fell out of mine laughing at him. It didn't take long until I was falling out into the water though...I was about to run into Kory as he was standing in the water and I tried to lean away so I wouldn't hit him and I dove into the chilly water.

I am currently doing a running program called Couch to 5K. It is designed to help you go from not working out at all to running a 5K in 9 weeks. I have completed week one of the program and one day of week two. I do work out occasionally so I am doing pretty well so far. We have a Summer wellness program at work called Summer Buds that starts this week. You form teams of three and encourage each other to complete the wellness goals you each set. My goal is to complete a 5k by the time the program ends in mid-September. So I found a 5k in September in Roseburg (the city where I work) that is for recovering addicts and their family/friends. I plan to run in that to celebrate my older brothers ongoing recovery.

So I know that a 5k (3 miles) isn't super far, but it is much farther than I can currently run and it is a good start for me. I am Definitely not a morning person, so I run in the evenings. I am currently running 3 times a week and it is going great so far.

Our church is going white water rafting this next weekend so I really hope the water warms up by then. It is Getting up into the 80s now, which feels great since it hasn't been this warm in about 7 or 8 months.

I get so behind on laundry and dishes and keeping my apartment clean and I live by myself so I can't even imagine how people take care of a whole family. Goodness gracious it makes me tired just thinking about it! Hopefully I can take advantage of this day off work and get caught up on all these not-so-fun chores.

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.

June Pictures

Here are some pictures from the past several weeks. I am too lazy to rearrange them so they are in random order.

Multnomah Falls just outside Portland

High School Graduations for Youth Group Members

Random Updates

A co-worker told me today that I am the most talented person he knew. I was really flattered until he told me that it was because I was walking down the stairs in high heels, taking a drink with one hand and texting with the other.

I have been running for two days in a row now, which is a big deal for me. If I run tonight and make it 3 days, we'll be approaching world record status in my book. I always get super motivated and run for a day or two and it quickly fades. I'm not trying to become a marathon runner by any means, but I would like to be in better shape (I feel like walking up my stairs shouldn't make me out of breath!) and be healthier. It's definitely not because I enjoy running. I really hate running actually...I'd much rather ride a bike, so I need to check into buying one of those. I have gone running at 9:00 p.m. both nights because it is still light outside and really cool! The weather has been really nice the past couple days so I'm hoping it's an indication that summer weather is on the way!

Today I decided to wear a pair of shoes I almost never wear to work because they really hurt my feet after wearing them all day. The heel is much higher than I typically wear, but I knew I got to be at my desk for at least 4 of the 8 hours today, so I thought I could make it just fine. Well, of course, that didn't happen...I should know better than to plan for that. One of my co-workers didn't come in today so I was covering for her and ended up on my feet for most of the day. Yikes--my feet and calves are burning!! Back to flats for me tomorrow...I'm just not a heels type of girl.

Evan and his youth group will arrive this Saturday and be here for a full week! I am SO excited to see them and get to spend the week with them. We'll be spending a couple days on the coast for a weekend retreat and the camp we're staying at looks awesome!

I have quite a few pictures I need to post of recent events (high school graduations, painting the youth room, ministry fair, etc.) but I always forget that when I'm at home and have my camera cord. Hopefully I can remember to upload those soon.

Youth Group & Julie's Wedding

We had our youth group rummage sale on Saturday and we raised $1650!! Very exciting! There is a group of ladies who worked for weeks to put this together and did an excellent job. Kory and I helped several of the teens paint the youth room upstairs while the rummage sale was going on downstairs. It looks great! I'm very impressed with the teen's work. I'll try to get some pictures up here soon to show off the paint job.

Here are a few more pictures from Julie's wedding:

She got her cake toppers custom-made of her, her husband, their dog and their mini-horse. They were SOO cute! That is his Fireman's number on his helmet and the dress was made to look like hers...such a great buy!

I also thought this was quite entertaining! This is what she did to my hair before she started fixing it for the wedding. That is some serious volume!

Picture Update!

After church in the park

Visiting the Redwoods

Julie's Bridal Party

I revived this plant...literally brought it back from death...very excited about it!

My boy can be sweet sometimes...hand picked roses...not sure where he stole them from though, he won't tell me that much.

Biggest Loser Disappoints

Did not like Biggest Loser last night. Had they previously announced that it would only be the top 3 and I just missed it? I've watched every episode and do not remember them saying that before. I'm very confused because all along it's been about the Final Four...just like every other year. I know they try to change it up and make it different, but this season they've just got a bit overboard with the changes.

Also, I feel like stupid Jillian ruined it for Daris. He probably had a chance until she was so mean, as usual. I hope he is the one voted into the final 3...I like him a lot! I don't really dislike Koli, but he's definitely my least favorite of the top 4. Ashley and Mike--hmm...I was hoping for Ashley and Daris, but I guess I can accept them together. I didn't even recognize Mike when the show started and they were all standing in the dark watching the videos.

Seeing all the people from previous seasons who have put a lot of the weight back on was really sad. Even when the contestants went home and really struggled, I was thinking about just how hard it really is for them. It's incredibly overwhelming to think they have to struggle with this for the rest of their lives.

I'm excited to see all of the contestants and where they are now...especially those who left the show early on and we haven't seen for a while. Even though I really love watching BL, I'm kind of happy that all the TV shows I watch are going to end for the season because I've started watching way too much TV lately. Hopefully I can start enjoying this warm weather more.

Oh, I am SO excited at the prospect of going to the trestle and swimming after work in the evenings when it gets really warm. We're going camping Memorial Day weekend and then again in July when we attend Creation Fest, which is a huge Christian music festival held in Washington. Summer fun is finally starting to begin!