one

that's right...only one week left here in Branson. I seriously cannot believe it. Where has the time gone? It feels like it was literally JUST may 10th when I was leaving Lubbock for 8 1/2 weeks. it was FLOWN. of course I knew it would...it always does. but i didn't think that at all in the midst of my crying before may 10th. now i'm crying because I'm leaving people and a city that i have grown to love. the girls that I'm closet to freakin live in Baton Rouge....really...thats like 15 hours from me.

There are a lot of things going on in these next couple of days. We are turning over the project to the students & leaving to a lodge type place for 4 days as a staff team. It's suppose to be a time of relaxing & hanging out. I really can't wait to just hang out with them & learn anything I can from the married women for the last time.

Right now I have conflicting emotions. Sam made a comment today that conflicting emotions is the worst. And it's so VERY true. I'm seriously sad to leave here & leave my girls. I just love watching women grow & take steps of faith. Yes, it will continue to happen even when I'm not here...but this also makes me have faith. I'm sad to leave the staff team that has become my summer family. I love staff meetings because you know it will be full of biblical truth & laughter/stories. It doesn't get any better then that! ...on the flipside....i'm so stoked to get home to my man & just hang out. No more skyping & long phone convos. I'm really excited to be able to hold his hand while we talk about something serious. Or sneak a kiss in the midst of pure joyous times. Really to be near to him. I'm pumped to go home & hang out with my best friends again. Mary is home & I can't wait to hang. Plus, Lori is home too...and almost married. I can't wait for all this last minute stuff that is going to happen leading up to her getting married. MY BEST FRIEND IS GETTING MARRIED! :) :) i can't wait to see her be the happiest woman in the world! I miss my church...my church this summer has been, well ok. ........so yea, as you can see I'm experiencing lots of just ups & down thoughts.

My parents came this past weekend. That was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed having them here. I love that people enjoy my parents. I mean it could be one of those things where their child doesn't want to introduce their parents to friends....I couldn't be more excited for people to meet my parents. They are actually pretty cool :) We went to two different shows. I loved one & just thought the other was alright. They brought missy also, so I got to see my puppy! They left from here and went to Denver...14 1/2 hrs of driving to get there...gross.

I'm leaving July 7th....I have to be off the property by 9am in the morning. I think our team might go eat somewhere for breakfast all together. We'll see. Teddy doesn't want me to get home before he gets off work. It will take me 10 hours to get home...not shabby.

I probably won't write again until I get home. Pray that I finished well & can keep my emotions under control.

-Kells

GOD IS GOOOOOOOOOOOD

the Lord is continually blowing my mind. story after story of how He is working right now.

TEDDY GOT INTO FIRE ACADEMY!!!!!!!


the first school he didn't get accepted. the second they called and wam bam he's IN! i'm sooo stoked. i cried, alot. he's so happy. i'm so proud. i was a roller coaster of emotions...all because i was happy. but screaming one moment & crying the next :)

He deserved this.
and what's cool about it all is that it is evident the Lord had a hand in this all.
answered prayer FOSHO!

so excited for him!
-Kells

whoops...

favorite picture: WRECK 'EM
it's almost been 10 days. my bad!

lots has been happening around here. here is some randomness....

1. we have 16 days left as staff
2. went to the lake this past thursday & got to tube! soo much fun! :)
3. i just got back from our women's retreat. we went to eureka springs, AR. weird city...but good women's retreat. we did personality assessments to help us live in our strengths & grow through our weaknesses. my personality is Chloric. You won't understand that...but that's ok. Just know that I like to be in control. it comes natural to me. but can be bad. :)
4. i haven't mentioned this yet...but our shower head is actually shorter then me. therefore i'm ALWAYS having to squat in the shower. i thought it would create wonderful muscles for me...but instead i've manged to figure out how to lean so i don't have to use the squating position. call it lazy...whatever.
5. this week I will be going to an indoor waterpark for FREE. two of my girls work there & their boss said they can get us in for free. how fun!!
6. i do laundry every sunday. which equal once a week. which is so odd for me. I don't neccessarily need to do it every sunday, but it's almost my way of escaping the hotel for a bit. i usually go with people. today (right now) i'm alone. it feels nice!
7. i layed by the pool for 3 hours today. i love our sunday's here. i was on the phone for about 2 hours of that with Teddy & Dena. i also talked to Mary & my dad today....i felt productive
8. i did my first women's talk this past wednesday. it was wonderful & the Lord used my story to have an impact on multiple girls here. what an honor to allow the Lord to use me.
9. i need an oil change. probably will take care of that tomorrow.
10. my parent's are coming this next weekend...i really CAN'T WAIT! it will be a blast.
11. the next weekend the staff leave project from thurs-sun to let the students run the project & we get to retreat.
12. the next weekend I will be back in lubbock. nuts how fast everything has flown by
13. i made 2 pairs of earrings this weekend in eureka springs. i am really excited about them!
14. i will miss the staff team when i leave. mainly the girls of course...they are the ones that i've REALLY connected with.
15. i've learned a lot about myself being on project again. i love working on myself and really God never wants us to just stop learning. if you allow Him to work, you will constantly be learning about Him & yourself. it's hard at times, but worth it.
16. i'm getting tan :) loving it. on top of that my hair has managed to become WAYYYYYYYYYY blonde. it's out of control. ha


ok, i'm out.
-Kells

Faith? yes, FAITH!

first off: be praying for Mary...I received a phone call from her mother yesterday morning letting me know that she broke her leg while in Moscow. Apparently she was doing a swing rope into a lake & on her 2nd try she landed in to shallow of water. :( She will most likely have to have surgery which is a total bummer. She is heading back to America in a month & it sucks that when she has her time off that she will be on crutches most likely. Anyways, pray for a quick recovery & for wise doctors.

this morning I had a chance to have complete faith in the Lord & I let fear take it's course. Now, I'm "reclaiming" my faith in it all & fighting against the devil. I will choose to believe that God's sovereign in all & that He will continue to lead & guide. Please join me in praying that Teddy will get accepted into the Wolfforth fire academy. There are tons of reasons of why I want this to happen, but mostly because it will make him so happy.

we are about to head out to do outreach. I believe my group i'm leading is heading to the Outlet malls...i'm excited. I'll admit I was more excited last week. I just have lots on my mind. Sometimes I wish I was a guy...because guys tend to compartmentalize thoughts....open a drawer and close it & be done with it for that time. While girls tend to have things all out on the table & have a hard time escaping thoughts & emotions. I will just have to pray against all these distractions in my head. I want to share the gospel with people...Lord use me.

there are lots of old project people in town this weekend. it feels weird having them here...I wonder if when I went to re-visit my project if those people felt weird having us. Granted, there were 4 of us girls...and here there are literally like 15 people in town. it is nuts.

oh and in the span of one week i've seen two couples reunite...by surprise. So much of me wishes I could just fly home & surprise Teddy for the weekend. OR that he could come up here and surpirse me. it's just not possible with his school...i love cute couple stuff...LOVE it. Makes me giddy inside for those people. But I also love experiencing cute couple stuff with my man. I think i've done a really good job at letting my heart be here. But I will admit now that we are almost at 3 weeks (tuesday) I'm getting more and more freakin excited to just run up & hug my baby. :) I just try not to think about it...and I refuse to start a day count. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. The Lord wants me here & I see how much He is teaching me here.

-Kells

bragging rights

before i get to my title of my blog I will say this: Now that the ABC business is done with...I'm now going to post at least ONE picture each blog. It will be a favorite picture of recent stuff....or just a favorite picture in general. So be looking for favs...

bragging rights: my boyfriend is SUCH a stud. He took his first test for fire academy acceptance today & freakin KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK. He got a 90 on the reading and 92 on arithmetic. This means that he got asked to come do the physical part of the acceptance on saturday at 7:30am. I can't even express how excited I was for him & so proud of him. It just seems like things are falling into place! He also did well in his first week of EMT class! He's great & will be a great fireman one day! :) :)

project is still going great! The past two sundays I spent the evening with Molly & Kinsey! I have loved that time of bonding & getting to know one another. It might become a tradition for us....who knows? I can't wait to get back & do ministry with these ladies. I let them "into" my world last night by sharing with them my soul to soul. I feel as if it's healing everytime I talk about my story. The Lord is good!

My parents are coming here in a few weeks. I only have a month left here...4 weeks. Which is NUTS to me. I feel like it's flying like crazy. I have been gone for 4 weeks & only have 4 weeks left. CRAZY! i love my staff team here....but we will be spread out allllll over the place after this. Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas. None of which I would be able to hang out with for just a weekend....to far away from Lubbock. :( We are already starting to communicate about the different ways we could get together again.

Students are already talking about reunions too. They are only 2 weeks in....haha....something about project makes you bond SO quickly. It's something that I think everyone should experience. GO ON SUMMER PROJECT!

My mom & sister are going to California here in a couple of weeks for FREE. i'm pissed...haha. My sister knows a family that works for a travel agent...and she teaches their kids. So they invited her and another friend to come free....COMPLETELY free to cali. Food...lodging....travel...the whole shabang. Apparently, I could've gone with them too for free if I wasn' there. I told them to push back the whole thing....because shoot I will have a month after project of just sitting by the pool because support is finished. :) My mom will be in Las Vegas, California, Branson, and Colorado all in a month period of time. Oh the joys of being a teacher & having the summers off....I'm pumped my parents are coming here! Can't wait for them to come & experience a little bit of project & my job/life right now. LOVE THEM!

had a revelation today while spending time in the Word...something about forgiveness. I can't describe it all on here at all. But I love those moments when I'm in the Word & the Lord makes something VERY VERY VERY clear to me that I have done & need to reconcile with a person. The Spirit totally was there when i was reading...or should I say I was listening to the Spirit...he's there always. Something I heard last week (chew on this for a bit): The Spirit is always pointing us back to Jesus....always.

Pray for teddy and his test
Pray for the students to get into Gospel conversations with their co-workers
Pray that I would be walking by the Spirit & leading through that


-Kells

"Zipadee dooo daaa"

I'm done i'm done! I did the ABC blog all the way through. Even though it took me an entire year, I'm stinkin excited. :)

well, I managed to make it a whole week & half again without blogging. It really is busy & the fact that so much happens everyday around here I don't want to take the time to sit down and write. But I've made it now.

All the students arrived one week ago. They now have jobs (mcdonalds, wendys, krispee kreme, fudge shop, water resort, babysitting, cooks...) so the hotel is very quiet during the day. I'm loving it :) I love my growth team! We already did soul to soul (last thursday) & had one growth team meeting (monday). They are wonderful & I feel like I can connect to each of them in different ways. Pray that the Lord would show where each of them need to grow this summer & that they would be pro-active in taking steps of faith to do so.

I love having Jeffery, Molly, and Kinsey here with me. Molly, Kins and I have been doing soul to soul too & just connecting well. The three of us went Sunday to do laundry together & hang out. I love those ladies. All 3 of them have already given their testimony in front of the entire group...mainly because they are some of the most trained people here. Texas Tech really does have wonderful leadership training for the students.





My birthday was Saturday. Seriously think it probably was the best birthday I've had in a LONG time. I felt so loved & appreciated. I had 4 cards mailed to me, 2 presents mailed to me, flowers delivered (24 beautiful tulips), fun presents from the staff team, and a card at the end of the night from the young staff with a note from each of them with encouragment. After having a mini birthday breakfast with the staff women I went to training stuff for students. There the entire project sang happy birthday to me. :) the rest of the day people said happy birthday & some of the students even gave me cards. After our social that night (for the students) the young staff went to Applebees to get dessert together. Our social required all the staff to dress silly & have students find us throughout Branson. Therefore we went to applebees dressed in ridiculous looking things...haha! They sang to me again & it was great! It was great turning 23 because we celebrated it all day. I still have my tulips too! I have been watching them open up & sprout out. I changed their water & fed them yesterday & they started popping out of the vase (literally). i LOVE them. My baby was so thoughtful in sending them to me. :)

have i mentioned that me & my roommate get along great! She graduated from Tech Dec 04. She interned at tech & then spent a year over seas Russia. i love this picture of us because we accidently matched. :) oh & I haven't mentioned this yet but all the young single staff are all blondes with blue eyes. Apparently that made it hard for students to remember who we all were because we all looked the same...haha

We only have 5 more weeks here. Time is FLYING. Thursday is our days off as staff. We were going to go to the lake...but it's suppose to be raining...maybe. It's rainy outside right now...gloomy and such. I want to get tan, but have only laid out once so far.

I put up pictures in my room finally. Pics of all my girls back home, staff girls, and of course my boo. Right next to my bed I have a frame with a picture of Teddy and I. I love the picture.

Teddy and I have mastered talking on skype. We actually hung out Sunday for 4 hours on skype. It was out of control, but so much fun!!! :) i miss that boy so much. We just started this book together called 101 Questions to Ask before getting engaged! It's a wonderful book and has sparked some GREAT conversations. We are already on question 6 (skipped one though). I'm surrounded by some awesome couples this summer....so I'm able to ask LOTS of questions & i love it. I feel like I'm learning a lot from them. Some of the questions are simple...but launch us into deeper conversation. While others are hard, but only require a simple answer. It's so much fun...seriously.

that's enough for now. have a good one!
-Kells