Youth Sunday!

Today was Youth Sunday at church! Youth Sunday is when the high school youth group gets a chance to do the service at church. It's usually pretty much the same as a normal service, but all the high schoolers do everything - lead the praise songs, the seniors give the sermon, and as a group we perform a skit. This year's theme was that we should live our lives as if God mattered - not conforming to the world's ideas, but living as God wants us to live.
In the skit, I played Sally SeesThingsClearly, a mythbuster on the show What Not To Do. My fellow mythbuster Bonnie Believable and I are experts at showing people what they are doing wrong and showing them how to live as God wants them to live. Some of the people we helped were Ima PeoplePleaser, Bob WorksALot, and Harry WasteTooMuch. It was a really good skit - all credit goes to our youth pastor, Dan Teefey, for writing the whole thing! We have kinda built up a reputation of having really funny skits, and this one was hilarious! Hehehe... :)

Maybe I can share something from Youth Sunday later. I didn't take any pics, but my camera is still not working! Maybe I just need to get a laptop so I can load my pics straight from the card... Something to think about! Have a great week!!!

Deep Freeze '07!!!

Over the weekend, I was at Deep Freeze, an annual retreat at one of my favorite places on earth, COVENANT HARBOR!!!!!!! I've been going there at least once a year since 1999, so it has a very special place in my heart. All my favorite memories of meeting new people and being close to God were when I was at Covenant Harbor, so I jump at any chance I get to go back. This past weekend, I was with my youth group for a short winter retreat that was so much fun! The theme of the retreat was that we can be superheroes for Christ if we are truly living for Him and not skimming from His word. We had a really good speaker, Andy Tilly, and the band, Least of These, was really good! The skits were classic Harbor skits - filled with forgetting lines, ad libbing, and malfunctions, which only make them all the better! I really wish I could share some pictures, but my camera is just not cooperating! I haven't been able to unload any pics in about a month, so I need to figure out what's wrong!!! As soon as I get them, I'll share them, but for now, it will have to be my life in text and preexisting web images!!! ;)

Mexico bound! - again!!!!

A few posts back, I promised to share upcoming news about my summer. Well, here it is - I'm going to MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For six weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Let me explain... Last July, I accompanied Cheri Auman, a woman who attends my church, to Mexico for the Covenant denomination's Mexico missionary staff retreat/conference. Cheri was there as a therapist to the missionaries, and I was there to be a babysitter to some of the missionary kids. Here are some pictures...

The Perez kids - oldest kids I babysat at the retreat
Raquel-7, Raphael-10, and their cousin, Yoli-9

The Perez kids and I holding Matias-1

One of the couples for whom I babysat during said retreat, Erika and Nils Clauson, are missionaries at the Covenant Foundation in Monterrey, Mexico, and are in need of a babysitter/nanny to help with their children. This is where I come in. I will be flying down in June with my church's missions team (who will be conducting a trip to help a local church and also at the Cov. foundation) and stay there for about six weeks. I will be living with the Clausons and taking care of their then 2-year-old Matias and 5-month-old Lucas (who was just born around Christmas time). The last week of my stay in Mexico will be babysitting at the '07 staff retreat/conference which Cheri will attend and accompany me home.

I'm very excited and scared and curious and nervous and about a hundred more emotions!!! I'm starting to realize that this is approaching very fast! I still don't know many details, but I have had the chance to e-mail the Clausons a few times and get a few of my questions answered. This is such a great opportunity for me to serve God and see how missionaries really live, how they work, and hopefully, a really great opportunity for the Clausons to get a little help so they can focus on their work. A lot of you were praying for my decision, and I thank you for every one! I hope I didn't ramble to much and you are able to understand everything! Mexico, here I come!

There's always next year...

I am depressed..... My emotions have greatly changed from my last post when I was rejoicing in the triumph of the Chicago Bears going to the Superbowl, and anticipating my next post with the title "Chicago Bears - NFL Champions." But alas, the mood of this post is very different. Of all teams for us to lose to, I am glad it was to the Colts and Peyton Manning (who was the MVP, by the way). As most of you know, I am a Chicago Cubs fan as well, and a phrase most often applied to that team by fans is "There's always next year" - strangely enough, I find myself saying the same thing about the Superbowl loss. If only there weren't as many turnovers and bad plays and missed snaps...*heavy sigh* Well, to quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

On a much lighter note, my dad celebrated his birthday on Jan. 31!
Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

My camera isn't loading correctly, so the only pic

I have is one of the pennant I got him from work.
GO BEARS!!!